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We have nurses working overtime, and even double shifts, day after day to keep the hospital running,” said Mike Hill, a nurse in Sutter’s intensive care unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hill said that while workplace violence in hospitals — mostly of patients toward staff — has always been a concern, there was an uptick in incidents during the pandemic, when many patients didn’t have the family support they needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes it’s intentional. Other times, it’s from anger, fear or a medical condition that causes them to lash out at staff. Either way, it’s dangerous for us as professionals,” said Hill. “It’s not just physical violence. Sometimes it’s verbal threats.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When workplace violence occurs, hospitals announce “code gray” on the intercom system to alert security, Hill said. But like the nursing team, the security department at Alta Bates is understaffed, and in some cases it takes too long for guards to arrive at the scene, Hill said, forcing other nurses to step in to help their colleagues. Hill said more security guards are needed both inside the hospital and in the parking garage, to prevent vehicle break-ins, thefts and attacks on staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those concerns about violence, he added, are compounded by the hospital failing to take the necessary measures to effectively protect nurses from COVID exposure and other diseases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) fined Sutter Health for violations tied to COVID-related workplace safety issues after an investigation was launched in response to the July 2021 \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/calosha-finds-alta-bates-summit-medical-center-guilty-eight-serious-violations\">death of an Alta Bates nurse\u003c/a>, who contracted the disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sutter must create working conditions to enhance patient care while also providing a safe work environment that retains nurses,” said Hill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ann Gaebler, a registered nurse of over 40 years, said she has never seen Sutter “act this disrespectfully” toward nurses, and it’s causing experienced health care providers to leave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without proper mentorship, we see young nurses suffering the moral injury and the moral distress of having to care for patients without the support they need, and so they leave,” Gaebler said in a statement. “This is not how you grow the next generation of nurses or how to take care of a community. We need Sutter to step up to address our concerns about retention, so we can continue to provide excellent care to our patients.”[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Dr. Joanne Spetz, director, Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, UCSF\"]‘I think the pandemic revealed and exacerbated a lot of problems that existed already, and some of those problems were brewing around stress and burnout and workloads, as we’re hearing from physicians and nurses and other health care professionals.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to the walkout, Sutter management faulted local leaders in the nurses unions, accusing them of putting “politics above the patients and the nurses they represent” despite Sutter being willing to bargain, a spokesperson said in a statement on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our attention remains on providing safe, high-quality care to the patients and communities we’re honored to serve, and we are confident in our ability to manage this disruption,” the statement said. “We are hopeful the union shares our desire to reach an agreement and enable our nurses to turn their focus back to the patients the union has asked them to walk away from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11930036\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59635_001_KQED_SutterRNStrikeOakland_10242022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11930036\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59635_001_KQED_SutterRNStrikeOakland_10242022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"People holding yellow and red signs and wearing red nurse outfits walk across the street.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59635_001_KQED_SutterRNStrikeOakland_10242022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59635_001_KQED_SutterRNStrikeOakland_10242022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59635_001_KQED_SutterRNStrikeOakland_10242022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59635_001_KQED_SutterRNStrikeOakland_10242022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59635_001_KQED_SutterRNStrikeOakland_10242022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nurses begin a five-day strike at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland on Oct. 24, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sutter Health’s proposed contract includes a pay increase of more than 20% over four years and a commitment to pursuing initiatives aimed at promoting diversity and advancing equity among its employees, along with continued health coverage for nurses and their families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Sutter nurses strike is just the latest in a slew of labor actions in recent months among health care workers throughout the Bay Area, mirroring a larger nationwide trend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The walkout comes less than a week after some 2,000 Kaiser Permanente mental health care employees approved \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/who-we-are/labor-relations/new-4-year-agreement-ratified\">a four-year contract\u003c/a>, ending an unprecedented, grueling 10-week strike over staffing shortages, wages and patient care, and just days after the Valley Physicians Group, a union representing about 450 doctors employed by Santa Clara County, announced its intention to hit the picket line on November 1 over similar issues.[aside postID=\"news_11929713,news_11924980\" label=\"Related Posts\"]Even though \u003ca href=\"https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2020/union-membership-rate-8-point-6-percent-in-manufacturing-23-point-4-percent-in-utilities-in-2019.htm#:~:text=Bureau%20of%20Labor%20Statistics,-The%20Economics%20Daily&text=In%202019%2C%20the%20union%20membership,hunting%3B%20and%20finance%20and%20insurance.\">less than 7% of health care workers nationwide were unionized\u003c/a> as of 2020, the health care sector \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/01/11/955128562/for-health-care-workers-the-pandemic-is-fueling-renewed-interest-in-unions\">also has seen renewed interest in unionization since the pandemic\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the pandemic revealed and exacerbated a lot of problems that existed already, and some of those problems were brewing around stress and burnout and workloads, as we’re hearing from physicians and nurses and other health care professionals,” Dr. Joanne Spetz, director of the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pandemic, she added, also laid bare the extent of labor shortages across a wide range of essential jobs within health care settings, including custodial staff, nursing assistants, food-service workers and delivery people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When those jobs are all in short supply, that puts even more pressure on physicians, nurses and others,” Spetz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And many health care workers are finding that their most common demands — for reduced workloads, more support services, more time for administrative tasks and, in a growing number of instances, tougher security measures — are often not sufficiently met by employers, who often cite nationwide labor shortages and rising costs of doing business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unionization is more popular than it’s ever been, even across political lines, with \u003ca href=\"https://news.gallup.com/poll/398303/approval-labor-unions-highest-point-1965.aspx\">a recent Gallup poll showing that 71% of Americans approve of labor unions\u003c/a>, the highest approval rating since 1965.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But questions remain over how financially well positioned hospitals are to hire and train more people and meet their employees’ increasingly vocal — and organized — demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Health care is competing against a lot of other industries and sectors that also are having difficulty recruiting,” Spetz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A skilled trade or retail or a restaurant can change their prices pretty quickly, but for health care, they are in these often multiyear insurance contracts and they cannot immediately drum up more revenue in order to pay those higher wages,” said Spetz. “They’re likely to be going back to the insurance industry in the next few years as their contracts come up for renegotiation and ask for more money. And then the insurance companies eventually are going to need to figure out how to pass that on in the price of higher premiums.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, Spetz added, the pressure of keeping costs down at a time of rampant inflation in a labor-intensive field like health care is exacerbated by the rising costs of supplies and equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because it takes a while to have the ability to raise revenue … that just puts more financial pressure,” Spetz said, adding that as the pandemic relief money fades, hospitals will be facing financial shortfalls and worrying about “how the money’s going to play out for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of it comes down to building a workplace where health care workers really feel valued, are able to use all their skills, are respected as professionals, regardless of what level they work within the organization … and have the autonomy to use their knowledge and skills to the highest ability,” Spetz said. “You need to be adequately staffed in general. And so that’s going to be the big challenge for employers, is how to create that healthy, supportive work culture. And you have to do that while you’re dealing with labor shortages and plugging all the holes that need to be plugged.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Additional reporting was contributed by Bay City News and KQED’s Laura Klivans.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Thousands of nurses at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center went on strike Monday, marking the latest in a slew of recent actions among health care workers throughout the region.",
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"title": "Multiple Bay Area Health Care Strikes Reflect a Workforce Under Increasing Strain | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Nearly 2,000 registered nurses at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center campuses in Oakland and Berkeley began a five-day strike Monday in response to high turnover rates, staff shortages and workplace safety issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nurses, represented by the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United, called on Sutter Health to implement workplace violence prevention plans, increase staffing and provide more robust safety resources, including better access to medical-grade safety equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am seeing nurses leave the medical center for other nursing positions on a regular basis. We have nurses working overtime, and even double shifts, day after day to keep the hospital running,” said Mike Hill, a nurse in Sutter’s intensive care unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hill said that while workplace violence in hospitals — mostly of patients toward staff — has always been a concern, there was an uptick in incidents during the pandemic, when many patients didn’t have the family support they needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes it’s intentional. Other times, it’s from anger, fear or a medical condition that causes them to lash out at staff. Either way, it’s dangerous for us as professionals,” said Hill. “It’s not just physical violence. Sometimes it’s verbal threats.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When workplace violence occurs, hospitals announce “code gray” on the intercom system to alert security, Hill said. But like the nursing team, the security department at Alta Bates is understaffed, and in some cases it takes too long for guards to arrive at the scene, Hill said, forcing other nurses to step in to help their colleagues. Hill said more security guards are needed both inside the hospital and in the parking garage, to prevent vehicle break-ins, thefts and attacks on staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those concerns about violence, he added, are compounded by the hospital failing to take the necessary measures to effectively protect nurses from COVID exposure and other diseases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) fined Sutter Health for violations tied to COVID-related workplace safety issues after an investigation was launched in response to the July 2021 \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/calosha-finds-alta-bates-summit-medical-center-guilty-eight-serious-violations\">death of an Alta Bates nurse\u003c/a>, who contracted the disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sutter must create working conditions to enhance patient care while also providing a safe work environment that retains nurses,” said Hill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ann Gaebler, a registered nurse of over 40 years, said she has never seen Sutter “act this disrespectfully” toward nurses, and it’s causing experienced health care providers to leave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without proper mentorship, we see young nurses suffering the moral injury and the moral distress of having to care for patients without the support they need, and so they leave,” Gaebler said in a statement. “This is not how you grow the next generation of nurses or how to take care of a community. We need Sutter to step up to address our concerns about retention, so we can continue to provide excellent care to our patients.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to the walkout, Sutter management faulted local leaders in the nurses unions, accusing them of putting “politics above the patients and the nurses they represent” despite Sutter being willing to bargain, a spokesperson said in a statement on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our attention remains on providing safe, high-quality care to the patients and communities we’re honored to serve, and we are confident in our ability to manage this disruption,” the statement said. “We are hopeful the union shares our desire to reach an agreement and enable our nurses to turn their focus back to the patients the union has asked them to walk away from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11930036\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59635_001_KQED_SutterRNStrikeOakland_10242022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11930036\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59635_001_KQED_SutterRNStrikeOakland_10242022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"People holding yellow and red signs and wearing red nurse outfits walk across the street.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59635_001_KQED_SutterRNStrikeOakland_10242022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59635_001_KQED_SutterRNStrikeOakland_10242022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59635_001_KQED_SutterRNStrikeOakland_10242022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59635_001_KQED_SutterRNStrikeOakland_10242022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS59635_001_KQED_SutterRNStrikeOakland_10242022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nurses begin a five-day strike at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland on Oct. 24, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sutter Health’s proposed contract includes a pay increase of more than 20% over four years and a commitment to pursuing initiatives aimed at promoting diversity and advancing equity among its employees, along with continued health coverage for nurses and their families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Sutter nurses strike is just the latest in a slew of labor actions in recent months among health care workers throughout the Bay Area, mirroring a larger nationwide trend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The walkout comes less than a week after some 2,000 Kaiser Permanente mental health care employees approved \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/who-we-are/labor-relations/new-4-year-agreement-ratified\">a four-year contract\u003c/a>, ending an unprecedented, grueling 10-week strike over staffing shortages, wages and patient care, and just days after the Valley Physicians Group, a union representing about 450 doctors employed by Santa Clara County, announced its intention to hit the picket line on November 1 over similar issues.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Even though \u003ca href=\"https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2020/union-membership-rate-8-point-6-percent-in-manufacturing-23-point-4-percent-in-utilities-in-2019.htm#:~:text=Bureau%20of%20Labor%20Statistics,-The%20Economics%20Daily&text=In%202019%2C%20the%20union%20membership,hunting%3B%20and%20finance%20and%20insurance.\">less than 7% of health care workers nationwide were unionized\u003c/a> as of 2020, the health care sector \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/01/11/955128562/for-health-care-workers-the-pandemic-is-fueling-renewed-interest-in-unions\">also has seen renewed interest in unionization since the pandemic\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the pandemic revealed and exacerbated a lot of problems that existed already, and some of those problems were brewing around stress and burnout and workloads, as we’re hearing from physicians and nurses and other health care professionals,” Dr. Joanne Spetz, director of the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pandemic, she added, also laid bare the extent of labor shortages across a wide range of essential jobs within health care settings, including custodial staff, nursing assistants, food-service workers and delivery people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When those jobs are all in short supply, that puts even more pressure on physicians, nurses and others,” Spetz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And many health care workers are finding that their most common demands — for reduced workloads, more support services, more time for administrative tasks and, in a growing number of instances, tougher security measures — are often not sufficiently met by employers, who often cite nationwide labor shortages and rising costs of doing business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unionization is more popular than it’s ever been, even across political lines, with \u003ca href=\"https://news.gallup.com/poll/398303/approval-labor-unions-highest-point-1965.aspx\">a recent Gallup poll showing that 71% of Americans approve of labor unions\u003c/a>, the highest approval rating since 1965.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But questions remain over how financially well positioned hospitals are to hire and train more people and meet their employees’ increasingly vocal — and organized — demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Health care is competing against a lot of other industries and sectors that also are having difficulty recruiting,” Spetz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A skilled trade or retail or a restaurant can change their prices pretty quickly, but for health care, they are in these often multiyear insurance contracts and they cannot immediately drum up more revenue in order to pay those higher wages,” said Spetz. “They’re likely to be going back to the insurance industry in the next few years as their contracts come up for renegotiation and ask for more money. And then the insurance companies eventually are going to need to figure out how to pass that on in the price of higher premiums.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, Spetz added, the pressure of keeping costs down at a time of rampant inflation in a labor-intensive field like health care is exacerbated by the rising costs of supplies and equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because it takes a while to have the ability to raise revenue … that just puts more financial pressure,” Spetz said, adding that as the pandemic relief money fades, hospitals will be facing financial shortfalls and worrying about “how the money’s going to play out for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of it comes down to building a workplace where health care workers really feel valued, are able to use all their skills, are respected as professionals, regardless of what level they work within the organization … and have the autonomy to use their knowledge and skills to the highest ability,” Spetz said. “You need to be adequately staffed in general. And so that’s going to be the big challenge for employers, is how to create that healthy, supportive work culture. And you have to do that while you’re dealing with labor shortages and plugging all the holes that need to be plugged.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Additional reporting was contributed by Bay City News and KQED’s Laura Klivans.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "'We're Drowning': Why Kaiser Mental Health Workers Are Striking",
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"content": "\u003cp>On Friday, the fifth day of an open-ended strike by Kaiser Permanente mental health workers across Northern California, some 200 employees and supporters marched to the health care giant’s Oakland headquarters, demanding that management increase staffing and resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They were among the roughly 2,000 Kaiser therapists, social workers and other mental health care staffers across Northern California — represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers — who formed picket lines outside Kaiser facilities this week, after negotiations with management ended without resolution last weekend. Those striking said employee morale is dangerously low and patient care has become substandard due to long wait times for treatment. [aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11922524,news_11922748,news_11921580\"] Kaiser officials have called the strike unethical to patients and counterproductive, pointing to the shortage of mental health professionals nationwide. A company representative declined to participate in an interview, citing ongoing negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">But in a statement issued Friday, Deb Catsavas, senior vice president of human resources at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, reiterated the company’s stance that the strike and “disruption to patient care” were unnecessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“While [the National Union of Healthcare Workers] claims it is fighting for increased access to care, its primary demand is for union members to spend less time seeing patients,” said Catsavas. “Our patients cannot afford a proposal that significantly reduces the time available to care for our patients and their mental health needs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The strike comes amid what the White House has described as an unprecedented mental health crisis among Americans of all ages.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why are Kaiser mental health care workers striking?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“We’re striking because it’s demoralizing to work for a company that actively does things to capitalize on burnout,” Naomi Johnson, an associate clinical social worker for Kaiser, told KQED Forum. “We’re really working very hard as clinicians to try to see patients as frequently as we can, and to provide the care that we’re trained [for] and good at providing. And we’re not supported in doing that by the company.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser tells patients that “if you have any sort of concerns or you want to come to therapy, please reach out,” added Johnson. “And then as providers, we’re told, ‘Only treat people who meet medical necessity.’ So it’s really difficult because we have this huge influx of people trying to seek services, but there aren’t enough of us to actually meet the demand, so we’re just completely overwhelmed. … We’re drowning, as clinicians.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11923078\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11923078\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"a protest\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaiser mental health care workers rally before a march from Oakland Kaiser Medical Center to Kaiser’s corporate headquarters on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, the fifth day of an open-ended strike. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>How does understaffing affect patients seeking treatment?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“There are currently 2,600 Kaiser patients for every mental health worker in (the) Northern California Kaiser system,” Ilana Marcucci-Morris, a licensed clinical social worker in Kaiser’s psychiatry department in Oakland, told Forum. That means the average Kaiser therapist sees between seven and 12 patients per day, while someone in private practice might see between three and six. After a series of initial intake calls, the majority of Kaiser patients calling with a “nonurgent” need wait between two and three months to see a therapist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Union of Healthcare Workers points to \u003ca href=\"https://nuhw.org/more-than-2000-kaiser-permanente-mental-health-clinicians-to-start-open-ended-strike-august-15/\">internal Kaiser documents illustrating\u003c/a> that “patients who received an initial mental health assessment on June 13 weren’t scheduled for follow-up appointments for a month in San Francisco, more than two months in Sacramento and three months or more in other parts of Northern California.” That length of time, experts say, does a disservice to those who have already taken the often-difficult first step of seeking support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The goal is to help people get better and terminate,” said Marcucci-Morris. “But the system within Kaiser does not allow for that. It’s the opposite. People are waiting longer, and deteriorating to where they either give up and pay [for therapy] out of pocket, which sets up a system for folks who have those resources to pay a private practice therapist and get better.” She said people who can’t afford private therapy and insurance premiums aren’t able to get better. “They get worse and they stay in Kaiser and they just stay sick,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11923083\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11923083\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"protestors reflected in a bus window\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaiser mental health care workers and supporters hold signs on the picket line outside Oakland Kaiser Medical Center. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>What is causing the understaffing?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kaiser administrators point to what they describe as a nationwide staffing shortage. “Across the country, there are not enough mental health care professionals to meet the increased demand for care,” said Kaiser’s Catsavas in an Aug. 15 statement. “This has created challenges for Kaiser Permanente and mental health care providers everywhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Company administrators say they have worked to combat the shortage by hiring new mental health clinicians, including nearly 200 new clinicians since January 2021; improving mental health care access through virtual care; and launching a $500,000 initiative to recruit new employees.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Ilana Marcucci-Morris, Kaiser psychiatrist\"]‘There isn’t a shortage of clinicians. There’s only a shortage of clinicians that want to work for Kaiser.’[/pullquote]But those on strike said the severity of the shortage is specific to Kaiser, and that burnout and poor working conditions are contributing to low retention of existing employees, and making it difficult for the company to recruit new ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There isn’t a shortage of clinicians. There’s only a shortage of clinicians that want to work for Kaiser,” said Marcucci-Morris. “We get into this field to help people, and it’s hard to recruit therapists when Kaiser’s reputation is known to make people wait so long for therapy sessions. It’s really, really not ethical. And I personally have a handful of colleagues and friends who are therapists with time in their schedules who I’ve tried to recruit for Kaiser. But the reputation is just so poor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s more appealing, said those striking, for qualified therapists to work for a private practice. “Workers just don’t want to work for Kaiser anymore, and that’s the real crisis we’re facing,” said Marcucci-Morris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union said the rate at which mental health clinicians are leaving Kaiser nearly doubled in the past year, with 668 clinicians leaving between June 2021 and May 2022, compared to 335 clinicians the previous year. In a union survey of 200 of those departing clinicians, 85% said they were leaving because their workload was unsustainable or because they felt they did not have enough time to complete the work, and 76% said they were unable to “treat patients in line with standards of care and medical necessity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to grow the mental health workforce, there’s no doubt about that,” California state Senator Scott Wiener told KQED Forum. “It is also the case that the shortage is not as severe right now as the health plans say … health plans can take steps to expand their workforce, including paying better, providing better reimbursements to private providers, and those are investments that they should be making that they have not made.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think it’s the case that they can just throw up their hands and say, we have some challenges with the workforce, and so therefore, we’re going to make people wait three months,” he added. “We have real shortages of physical health care providers, but we don’t tolerate around physical health what we have long tolerated around mental health, which is effectively denying people access to lifesaving care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11923080\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11923080\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"a baby in a stroller as part of a protest \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaiser mental health care workers carry signs on the picket line outside Oakland Kaiser Medical Center on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, the fifth day of an open-ended strike. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Has California passed any recent laws to address this shortage?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://openstates.org/ca/bills/20212022/SB221/\">Senate Bill 221\u003c/a>, which passed in 2021 and went into effect July 1, 2022, said that “health plans, including Kaiser, must provide timely access to mental health and addiction treatment,” Senator Wiener told Forum. “And that means a prompt first visit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law codifies existing regulations from the Department of Managed Health Care and the Department of Insurance that require a health care service plan or an insurer to ensure that “for an enrollee requesting a non-urgent appointment with a non-physician mental health care provider … appointments are offered within 10 business days of the request for an appointment.” Follow-up visits have to happen within two weeks, added Wiener.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB858\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Senate Bill 858\u003c/a>, which recently passed on the California State Assembly floor and will now move to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk, would update the way health insurance companies are fined for violations, something that hasn’t been updated or even adjusted for inflation since the 1970s, said Wiener. Currently, the maximum fine possible stands at $2,500 per violation; the bill, if passed, would increase that amount to $25,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We think that will create a much larger incentive to actually follow the law and provide people with timely and appropriate access to health care,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What exactly are the strikers asking for? What’s the current status of negotiations?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In negotiations that led up to the strike, the National Union of Healthcare Workers accepted Kaiser’s wage-increase offer. But the union held fast on its demand that nine hours per week — up from the current six hours — be allotted for administrative work. Kaiser rejected that demand, arguing it would not leave adequate time to see patients. The company’s counteroffer, of an additional 1.2 hours for that work, was flatly rejected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We wouldn’t be striking right now if money was the primary [issue],” said Marcucci-Morris, pointing to burnout, retention issues and poor morale — as well as what the union describes as the lack of a clear plan for how the company is going to meet the requirements laid out by SB 221.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not going to fix the problems to buy the therapists out and pay us more,” she said. “What good is more pay when you’re drowning and can’t come up for air?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How is the strike affecting patients in need of care?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kaiser is legally obligated to continue providing care for its members during a labor strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Beginning this week, our patients will receive care from those mental health clinicians who choose patient needs over the strike, as well as from our psychiatrists, clinical managers, and other licensed professionals,” said Catsavas in a statement on the first day of the strike, while noting that “some nonurgent appointments may need to be rescheduled” and that patients whose appointments might be affected “will be directly contacted prior to the date of the appointment to ensure they receive the care they need.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "On the fifth day of an open-ended strike, Kaiser mental health workers gathered in Oakland to protest outside the health care giant's corporate headquarters. Here's what they're marching for.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On Friday, the fifth day of an open-ended strike by Kaiser Permanente mental health workers across Northern California, some 200 employees and supporters marched to the health care giant’s Oakland headquarters, demanding that management increase staffing and resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They were among the roughly 2,000 Kaiser therapists, social workers and other mental health care staffers across Northern California — represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers — who formed picket lines outside Kaiser facilities this week, after negotiations with management ended without resolution last weekend. Those striking said employee morale is dangerously low and patient care has become substandard due to long wait times for treatment. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> Kaiser officials have called the strike unethical to patients and counterproductive, pointing to the shortage of mental health professionals nationwide. A company representative declined to participate in an interview, citing ongoing negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">But in a statement issued Friday, Deb Catsavas, senior vice president of human resources at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, reiterated the company’s stance that the strike and “disruption to patient care” were unnecessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“While [the National Union of Healthcare Workers] claims it is fighting for increased access to care, its primary demand is for union members to spend less time seeing patients,” said Catsavas. “Our patients cannot afford a proposal that significantly reduces the time available to care for our patients and their mental health needs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The strike comes amid what the White House has described as an unprecedented mental health crisis among Americans of all ages.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why are Kaiser mental health care workers striking?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“We’re striking because it’s demoralizing to work for a company that actively does things to capitalize on burnout,” Naomi Johnson, an associate clinical social worker for Kaiser, told KQED Forum. “We’re really working very hard as clinicians to try to see patients as frequently as we can, and to provide the care that we’re trained [for] and good at providing. And we’re not supported in doing that by the company.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser tells patients that “if you have any sort of concerns or you want to come to therapy, please reach out,” added Johnson. “And then as providers, we’re told, ‘Only treat people who meet medical necessity.’ So it’s really difficult because we have this huge influx of people trying to seek services, but there aren’t enough of us to actually meet the demand, so we’re just completely overwhelmed. … We’re drowning, as clinicians.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11923078\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11923078\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"a protest\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57886_021_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaiser mental health care workers rally before a march from Oakland Kaiser Medical Center to Kaiser’s corporate headquarters on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, the fifth day of an open-ended strike. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>How does understaffing affect patients seeking treatment?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“There are currently 2,600 Kaiser patients for every mental health worker in (the) Northern California Kaiser system,” Ilana Marcucci-Morris, a licensed clinical social worker in Kaiser’s psychiatry department in Oakland, told Forum. That means the average Kaiser therapist sees between seven and 12 patients per day, while someone in private practice might see between three and six. After a series of initial intake calls, the majority of Kaiser patients calling with a “nonurgent” need wait between two and three months to see a therapist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Union of Healthcare Workers points to \u003ca href=\"https://nuhw.org/more-than-2000-kaiser-permanente-mental-health-clinicians-to-start-open-ended-strike-august-15/\">internal Kaiser documents illustrating\u003c/a> that “patients who received an initial mental health assessment on June 13 weren’t scheduled for follow-up appointments for a month in San Francisco, more than two months in Sacramento and three months or more in other parts of Northern California.” That length of time, experts say, does a disservice to those who have already taken the often-difficult first step of seeking support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The goal is to help people get better and terminate,” said Marcucci-Morris. “But the system within Kaiser does not allow for that. It’s the opposite. People are waiting longer, and deteriorating to where they either give up and pay [for therapy] out of pocket, which sets up a system for folks who have those resources to pay a private practice therapist and get better.” She said people who can’t afford private therapy and insurance premiums aren’t able to get better. “They get worse and they stay in Kaiser and they just stay sick,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11923083\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11923083\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"protestors reflected in a bus window\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57866_005_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaiser mental health care workers and supporters hold signs on the picket line outside Oakland Kaiser Medical Center. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>What is causing the understaffing?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kaiser administrators point to what they describe as a nationwide staffing shortage. “Across the country, there are not enough mental health care professionals to meet the increased demand for care,” said Kaiser’s Catsavas in an Aug. 15 statement. “This has created challenges for Kaiser Permanente and mental health care providers everywhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Company administrators say they have worked to combat the shortage by hiring new mental health clinicians, including nearly 200 new clinicians since January 2021; improving mental health care access through virtual care; and launching a $500,000 initiative to recruit new employees.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But those on strike said the severity of the shortage is specific to Kaiser, and that burnout and poor working conditions are contributing to low retention of existing employees, and making it difficult for the company to recruit new ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There isn’t a shortage of clinicians. There’s only a shortage of clinicians that want to work for Kaiser,” said Marcucci-Morris. “We get into this field to help people, and it’s hard to recruit therapists when Kaiser’s reputation is known to make people wait so long for therapy sessions. It’s really, really not ethical. And I personally have a handful of colleagues and friends who are therapists with time in their schedules who I’ve tried to recruit for Kaiser. But the reputation is just so poor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s more appealing, said those striking, for qualified therapists to work for a private practice. “Workers just don’t want to work for Kaiser anymore, and that’s the real crisis we’re facing,” said Marcucci-Morris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union said the rate at which mental health clinicians are leaving Kaiser nearly doubled in the past year, with 668 clinicians leaving between June 2021 and May 2022, compared to 335 clinicians the previous year. In a union survey of 200 of those departing clinicians, 85% said they were leaving because their workload was unsustainable or because they felt they did not have enough time to complete the work, and 76% said they were unable to “treat patients in line with standards of care and medical necessity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to grow the mental health workforce, there’s no doubt about that,” California state Senator Scott Wiener told KQED Forum. “It is also the case that the shortage is not as severe right now as the health plans say … health plans can take steps to expand their workforce, including paying better, providing better reimbursements to private providers, and those are investments that they should be making that they have not made.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think it’s the case that they can just throw up their hands and say, we have some challenges with the workforce, and so therefore, we’re going to make people wait three months,” he added. “We have real shortages of physical health care providers, but we don’t tolerate around physical health what we have long tolerated around mental health, which is effectively denying people access to lifesaving care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11923080\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11923080\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"a baby in a stroller as part of a protest \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/08/RS57907_044_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaiser mental health care workers carry signs on the picket line outside Oakland Kaiser Medical Center on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, the fifth day of an open-ended strike. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Has California passed any recent laws to address this shortage?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://openstates.org/ca/bills/20212022/SB221/\">Senate Bill 221\u003c/a>, which passed in 2021 and went into effect July 1, 2022, said that “health plans, including Kaiser, must provide timely access to mental health and addiction treatment,” Senator Wiener told Forum. “And that means a prompt first visit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law codifies existing regulations from the Department of Managed Health Care and the Department of Insurance that require a health care service plan or an insurer to ensure that “for an enrollee requesting a non-urgent appointment with a non-physician mental health care provider … appointments are offered within 10 business days of the request for an appointment.” Follow-up visits have to happen within two weeks, added Wiener.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB858\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Senate Bill 858\u003c/a>, which recently passed on the California State Assembly floor and will now move to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk, would update the way health insurance companies are fined for violations, something that hasn’t been updated or even adjusted for inflation since the 1970s, said Wiener. Currently, the maximum fine possible stands at $2,500 per violation; the bill, if passed, would increase that amount to $25,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We think that will create a much larger incentive to actually follow the law and provide people with timely and appropriate access to health care,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What exactly are the strikers asking for? What’s the current status of negotiations?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In negotiations that led up to the strike, the National Union of Healthcare Workers accepted Kaiser’s wage-increase offer. But the union held fast on its demand that nine hours per week — up from the current six hours — be allotted for administrative work. Kaiser rejected that demand, arguing it would not leave adequate time to see patients. The company’s counteroffer, of an additional 1.2 hours for that work, was flatly rejected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We wouldn’t be striking right now if money was the primary [issue],” said Marcucci-Morris, pointing to burnout, retention issues and poor morale — as well as what the union describes as the lack of a clear plan for how the company is going to meet the requirements laid out by SB 221.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not going to fix the problems to buy the therapists out and pay us more,” she said. “What good is more pay when you’re drowning and can’t come up for air?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How is the strike affecting patients in need of care?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kaiser is legally obligated to continue providing care for its members during a labor strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Beginning this week, our patients will receive care from those mental health clinicians who choose patient needs over the strike, as well as from our psychiatrists, clinical managers, and other licensed professionals,” said Catsavas in a statement on the first day of the strike, while noting that “some nonurgent appointments may need to be rescheduled” and that patients whose appointments might be affected “will be directly contacted prior to the date of the appointment to ensure they receive the care they need.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Nearly 5,000 striking nurses at Stanford and Lucile Packard Children’s hospitals plan to return to work Tuesday after overwhelmingly approving new three-year contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new agreements, which cover nurses at both hospitals, include yearly wage increases of 7% this year and 5% for each of the following two years, along with more generous retirement benefits and additional vacation time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an effort to address severe staffing shortages and high rates of burnout in the profession, the contracts also offer better access to mental health support and new pay incentives for recruiting and retaining nurses in hard-to-staff sectors, like critical care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are very proud of the advances we have made with these contracts,” Colleen Borges, president of the Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement (CRONA), the union representing nurses, told reporters Monday. “They addressed the goals we set out at the outset of negotiations, and we hope will lead the way to improve nursing as an overall profession.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/CRONAnurses/status/1521176731083706368\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11912231/stanford-nurses-strike-over-staffing-shortages-lack-of-mental-health-support\">Nurses went on strike last Monday\u003c/a>, April 25, in an action that more than 90% of the union’s rank-and-file supported after their previous contracts expired in March. Union officials argued that the two hospitals were not adequately reinvesting in staffing, even after receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in federal pandemic relief funding. Revenue for the two hospitals grew 16%, to a combined $8.3 billion, according to Stanford Health Care’s financial disclosure for the 2021 fiscal year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kathy Stormberg, CRONA’s vice president, said management finally got the message that the nursing profession needs to be more sustainable and appealing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Amid a nationwide shortage of nurses driven by high levels of burnout, moral injury, exhaustion and trauma, hospitals need to step up their support for the nursing profession,” she told reporters on Monday. “Creating better and safer working conditions for nurses is directly connected to ensuring the best care conditions for the patients who are in our charge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"stanford-hospital\"]A 2021 UCSF study estimated a \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2021/09/421366/california-faces-short-term-nursing-shortage-covid-19-retirements\">shortage of more than 40,000 full-time registered nurses in California\u003c/a>, part of what it identified as a longer-term trend that has been accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, a survey conducted by CRONA in November found that 45% of Stanford nurses had considered leaving their jobs due to a lack of resources, training and support staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kimberley Reed, a union representative who has worked for roughly 18 years as a nurse in Stanford Hospital’s cardiac intensive care unit, said many nurses simply have been pushed to the brink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s been high turnover, an increased amount of overtime that we’re using, decreased resources available to us,” she said. “And there’s really no time for us to rest and recharge. All of this is not sustainable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reed said she’s particularly encouraged that the new contract includes better mental health support and pay incentives for nurses working with severely ill patients in emergency departments, intensive care units and critical care transport teams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason that is so important is because it’s been really, really hard for the institution to be able to get nurses in those areas,” she said. “So this incentive program will hopefully retain the nurses who have been here through the pandemic. And it will also incentivize experienced nurses who want to come to Stanford to work in those areas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pressure mounted against hospital management heading into the strike, with nurses receiving strong support from elected officials across the Peninsula and South Bay. \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/SenAlexPadilla/status/1520202366049562626\">U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla also visited the picket line Friday\u003c/a>, calling nurses “real-life superheroes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Stanford said it was pleased to reach a deal that reflects “shared priorities and enhances existing benefits supporting our nurses’ health, well-being, and ongoing professional development.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CRONA officials agreed Monday that both sides had shared goals, but suggested that they approached the negotiations in notably different ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sticking points really had to do with sort of a philosophical difference in how we approach things,” Stormberg said. “It wasn’t so much that there was a specific issue, rather that it was a complete package of changes that we were working on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story includes reporting from KQED’s Sara Hossaini and Eli Walsh of Bay City News.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Nearly 5,000 striking nurses at Stanford and Lucile Packard Children’s hospitals plan to return to work Tuesday after overwhelmingly approving new three-year contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new agreements, which cover nurses at both hospitals, include yearly wage increases of 7% this year and 5% for each of the following two years, along with more generous retirement benefits and additional vacation time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an effort to address severe staffing shortages and high rates of burnout in the profession, the contracts also offer better access to mental health support and new pay incentives for recruiting and retaining nurses in hard-to-staff sectors, like critical care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are very proud of the advances we have made with these contracts,” Colleen Borges, president of the Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement (CRONA), the union representing nurses, told reporters Monday. “They addressed the goals we set out at the outset of negotiations, and we hope will lead the way to improve nursing as an overall profession.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11912231/stanford-nurses-strike-over-staffing-shortages-lack-of-mental-health-support\">Nurses went on strike last Monday\u003c/a>, April 25, in an action that more than 90% of the union’s rank-and-file supported after their previous contracts expired in March. Union officials argued that the two hospitals were not adequately reinvesting in staffing, even after receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in federal pandemic relief funding. Revenue for the two hospitals grew 16%, to a combined $8.3 billion, according to Stanford Health Care’s financial disclosure for the 2021 fiscal year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kathy Stormberg, CRONA’s vice president, said management finally got the message that the nursing profession needs to be more sustainable and appealing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Amid a nationwide shortage of nurses driven by high levels of burnout, moral injury, exhaustion and trauma, hospitals need to step up their support for the nursing profession,” she told reporters on Monday. “Creating better and safer working conditions for nurses is directly connected to ensuring the best care conditions for the patients who are in our charge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>A 2021 UCSF study estimated a \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2021/09/421366/california-faces-short-term-nursing-shortage-covid-19-retirements\">shortage of more than 40,000 full-time registered nurses in California\u003c/a>, part of what it identified as a longer-term trend that has been accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, a survey conducted by CRONA in November found that 45% of Stanford nurses had considered leaving their jobs due to a lack of resources, training and support staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kimberley Reed, a union representative who has worked for roughly 18 years as a nurse in Stanford Hospital’s cardiac intensive care unit, said many nurses simply have been pushed to the brink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s been high turnover, an increased amount of overtime that we’re using, decreased resources available to us,” she said. “And there’s really no time for us to rest and recharge. All of this is not sustainable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reed said she’s particularly encouraged that the new contract includes better mental health support and pay incentives for nurses working with severely ill patients in emergency departments, intensive care units and critical care transport teams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason that is so important is because it’s been really, really hard for the institution to be able to get nurses in those areas,” she said. “So this incentive program will hopefully retain the nurses who have been here through the pandemic. And it will also incentivize experienced nurses who want to come to Stanford to work in those areas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pressure mounted against hospital management heading into the strike, with nurses receiving strong support from elected officials across the Peninsula and South Bay. \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/SenAlexPadilla/status/1520202366049562626\">U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla also visited the picket line Friday\u003c/a>, calling nurses “real-life superheroes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Stanford said it was pleased to reach a deal that reflects “shared priorities and enhances existing benefits supporting our nurses’ health, well-being, and ongoing professional development.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CRONA officials agreed Monday that both sides had shared goals, but suggested that they approached the negotiations in notably different ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sticking points really had to do with sort of a philosophical difference in how we approach things,” Stormberg said. “It wasn’t so much that there was a specific issue, rather that it was a complete package of changes that we were working on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story includes reporting from KQED’s Sara Hossaini and Eli Walsh of Bay City News.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>About 5,000 nurses at Stanford and Lucile Packard Children’s hospitals went on strike Monday, with workers calling on Stanford Health Care management to boost wages, address staffing shortages and provide workers with more mental health support, a need that’s grown during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement, or CRONA, which represents the striking nurses, executives at Stanford Health Care and Luclle Packard Children’s Hospital have failed to address low staff retention and high turnover rates and have attempted to withdraw health benefits for striking nurses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford administrators and union leaders are set to go back to the bargaining table Tuesday as nurses enter their second day of an open-ended strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roughly 93% of nurses represented by CRONA voted to authorize the strike earlier this month after their labor contract with Stanford expired March 31. The strike is CRONA’s first in more than two decades, according to the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A strike has always been the last resort for CRONA nurses, but we are prepared to stand strong and make sacrifices today for the transformative changes that the nursing profession and our patients need,” said CRONA President Colleen Borges on Monday. Borges is a pediatric oncology nurse at Packard Children’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/CRONAnurses/status/1518635587435065345?s=20&t=zWCMkNe3aGzraOscLsagKg\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A survey conducted by CRONA in November found that 45% of Stanford nurses considered leaving due to a lack of resources, training and support staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford Health Care Chief Nurse Executive Dale Beatty and Stanford Children’s Health Senior Vice President Jesus Cepero said in a joint statement that they respect the union’s right to strike, but argued that Stanford will be forced to reduce some services and reschedule elective procedures during the strike, even after securing replacement nurses for the two hospitals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two executives also argued that Stanford’s most recent contract offer to CRONA was sufficient, offering increased wages, student loan repayment assistance and incentive payments for nurses in units with high turnover rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to work toward an agreement with CRONA on a contract that our nurses can support and be proud of,” Beatty and Cepero said. “Our nurses are exceptional, and we strive to recognize and reward their enormous contributions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11911519 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1392178871-1020x676.jpg']“Nobody wants to strike,” ICU cardiac nurse Kimberley Reed told KQED. “Because it’s not good for hospitals. It’s not good for nurses. It’s not good for our patients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Reed said she’ll be at the bargaining table to fight for better retirement benefits and to make sure that patients get the best care — and part of that, she said, is making sure nurses also get the mental health care they need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of [workers] are paying for mental health services out of their pockets,” she said. “And I think with the death of Michael Odell … that actually did something to a lot of people.” Odell was a 27-year-old traveling nurse who was working at Stanford Health Care in January when he \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2022/03/23/nurse-warned-of-pandemic-mental-toll-health-workers/\">died by an apparent suicide\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had been bringing these [mental health] issues to light even before the tragic death of one of our colleagues,” Fred Taleghani, a nurse at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and a member of the union’s negotiation team, told KQED before the strike began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hospitals’ existing employee assistance program, Taleghani said, “was taking upwards [of] four to six weeks to even get an appointment with a therapist. And [for] anyone experiencing a mental health crisis, you need help immediately. A month from now, a month and a half from now — it doesn’t work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taleghani said the union is asking for creative workarounds to get the hospitals to improve mental health care options for workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re asking for $1,750 that [a] nurse can reimburse up to 80% of their outside mental health expenses with,” he said. “Mental health is a really personal issue, and you have to have a therapist that you connect with — and a randomly assigned therapist from a large company … is just not workable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Hospitals plan to cut striking workers’ benefits\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Stanford Health and Packard Children’s announced earlier this month that they would cut striking workers’ health care benefits as of May 1. Stanford executives Beatty and Cepero said doing so is “standard national practice,” as health care benefits from an employer are generally only provided to those who are actively working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This standard practice is not unique to our hospitals and applies to any of our employees who are not working, are on unpaid status, and are not on an approved leave,” they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State legislators representing parts of the peninsula have called on Stanford to resolve the contract dispute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a joint letter Friday to Stanford Health Care President and CEO David Entwistle and Packard Children’s President and CEO Paul King, Assemblymembers Ash Kalra (D-San José) and Marc Berman (D-Palo Alto) and state Sen. Josh Becker (D-San Mateo) called it “unconscionable” that the two hospitals would cut health care benefits for striking workers and suggested it was a tactic to break the picket line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislators and CRONA also have noted that Stanford Health Care and Packard Children’s have received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal pandemic relief funding — Stanford Health Care’s financial disclosure for the end of the 2021 fiscal year reported that revenue for the two hospitals grew 16% to a combined $8.3 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cutting off the health care for these frontline health care workers and their families after they have carried us through a pandemic is not only unnecessary — it is cruel and out of step with the values Stanford and Packard publicly advertise,” Kalra, Berman and Becker said. “Having received generous federal funding the last two years, Stanford and Packard health care should not be playing games with nurses’ health care benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CRONA has yet to announce an end date for the strike and plans to continue bargaining with Stanford Health executives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story includes reporting from Eli Walsh of Bay City News, KQED’s Sukey Lewis and KQED’s April Dembosky. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Stanford Nurses Strike Over Staffing Shortages, Lack of Mental Health Support | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>About 5,000 nurses at Stanford and Lucile Packard Children’s hospitals went on strike Monday, with workers calling on Stanford Health Care management to boost wages, address staffing shortages and provide workers with more mental health support, a need that’s grown during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement, or CRONA, which represents the striking nurses, executives at Stanford Health Care and Luclle Packard Children’s Hospital have failed to address low staff retention and high turnover rates and have attempted to withdraw health benefits for striking nurses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford administrators and union leaders are set to go back to the bargaining table Tuesday as nurses enter their second day of an open-ended strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roughly 93% of nurses represented by CRONA voted to authorize the strike earlier this month after their labor contract with Stanford expired March 31. The strike is CRONA’s first in more than two decades, according to the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A strike has always been the last resort for CRONA nurses, but we are prepared to stand strong and make sacrifices today for the transformative changes that the nursing profession and our patients need,” said CRONA President Colleen Borges on Monday. Borges is a pediatric oncology nurse at Packard Children’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>A survey conducted by CRONA in November found that 45% of Stanford nurses considered leaving due to a lack of resources, training and support staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford Health Care Chief Nurse Executive Dale Beatty and Stanford Children’s Health Senior Vice President Jesus Cepero said in a joint statement that they respect the union’s right to strike, but argued that Stanford will be forced to reduce some services and reschedule elective procedures during the strike, even after securing replacement nurses for the two hospitals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two executives also argued that Stanford’s most recent contract offer to CRONA was sufficient, offering increased wages, student loan repayment assistance and incentive payments for nurses in units with high turnover rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to work toward an agreement with CRONA on a contract that our nurses can support and be proud of,” Beatty and Cepero said. “Our nurses are exceptional, and we strive to recognize and reward their enormous contributions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Nobody wants to strike,” ICU cardiac nurse Kimberley Reed told KQED. “Because it’s not good for hospitals. It’s not good for nurses. It’s not good for our patients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Reed said she’ll be at the bargaining table to fight for better retirement benefits and to make sure that patients get the best care — and part of that, she said, is making sure nurses also get the mental health care they need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of [workers] are paying for mental health services out of their pockets,” she said. “And I think with the death of Michael Odell … that actually did something to a lot of people.” Odell was a 27-year-old traveling nurse who was working at Stanford Health Care in January when he \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2022/03/23/nurse-warned-of-pandemic-mental-toll-health-workers/\">died by an apparent suicide\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had been bringing these [mental health] issues to light even before the tragic death of one of our colleagues,” Fred Taleghani, a nurse at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and a member of the union’s negotiation team, told KQED before the strike began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hospitals’ existing employee assistance program, Taleghani said, “was taking upwards [of] four to six weeks to even get an appointment with a therapist. And [for] anyone experiencing a mental health crisis, you need help immediately. A month from now, a month and a half from now — it doesn’t work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taleghani said the union is asking for creative workarounds to get the hospitals to improve mental health care options for workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re asking for $1,750 that [a] nurse can reimburse up to 80% of their outside mental health expenses with,” he said. “Mental health is a really personal issue, and you have to have a therapist that you connect with — and a randomly assigned therapist from a large company … is just not workable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Hospitals plan to cut striking workers’ benefits\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Stanford Health and Packard Children’s announced earlier this month that they would cut striking workers’ health care benefits as of May 1. Stanford executives Beatty and Cepero said doing so is “standard national practice,” as health care benefits from an employer are generally only provided to those who are actively working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This standard practice is not unique to our hospitals and applies to any of our employees who are not working, are on unpaid status, and are not on an approved leave,” they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State legislators representing parts of the peninsula have called on Stanford to resolve the contract dispute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a joint letter Friday to Stanford Health Care President and CEO David Entwistle and Packard Children’s President and CEO Paul King, Assemblymembers Ash Kalra (D-San José) and Marc Berman (D-Palo Alto) and state Sen. Josh Becker (D-San Mateo) called it “unconscionable” that the two hospitals would cut health care benefits for striking workers and suggested it was a tactic to break the picket line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislators and CRONA also have noted that Stanford Health Care and Packard Children’s have received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal pandemic relief funding — Stanford Health Care’s financial disclosure for the end of the 2021 fiscal year reported that revenue for the two hospitals grew 16% to a combined $8.3 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cutting off the health care for these frontline health care workers and their families after they have carried us through a pandemic is not only unnecessary — it is cruel and out of step with the values Stanford and Packard publicly advertise,” Kalra, Berman and Becker said. “Having received generous federal funding the last two years, Stanford and Packard health care should not be playing games with nurses’ health care benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CRONA has yet to announce an end date for the strike and plans to continue bargaining with Stanford Health executives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "its-so-unfair-major-delays-at-state-labor-agency-leave-many-wage-theft-victims-uncompensated",
"title": "'It's So Unfair': Major Delays at State Labor Agency Leave Many Wage Theft Victims Unpaid",
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"headTitle": "‘It’s So Unfair’: Major Delays at State Labor Agency Leave Many Wage Theft Victims Unpaid | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Thousands of California workers whose employers collectively owe them millions of dollars in unpaid wages are at risk of never seeing the money they earned, as the state watchdog agency investigating wage-theft cases is failing to resolve them in a timely way, according to labor enforcement experts and worker advocates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the businesses in question were cited by the California Labor Commissioner’s Office for systematically dodging labor laws, after investigators conducted lengthy reviews, including payroll record audits and interviews with employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Employers have the right to appeal those citations — which typically come with hefty fines — and most do, said worker attorneys. The next step is a hearing at the Labor Commissioner’s Office. But the agency, whose mission is to combat wage theft, can take years to schedule those hearings, delaying restitution for workers, most of whom are in lower-wage industries.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"State Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose\"]‘This is exactly the opposite of what the government is supposed to be doing. Government should be stepping in and policing these employers that are ripping people off, and it’s not happening. And it’s causing real pain.’[/pullquote]The longer the cases drag on, the harder it is for workers to collect what’s owed them, advocates said. The backlog has only worsened during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose, said the delays at the agency, also known as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, are “unacceptable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is exactly the opposite of what the government is supposed to be doing,” said Cortese, who chairs the state Senate Labor, Employment and Retirement Committee. “Government should be stepping in and policing these employers that are ripping people off, and it’s not happening. And it’s causing real pain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For workers living paycheck to paycheck, that pain is palpable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonia Crisostomo, a 47-year-old single mother, worked as a prep cook and cashier at a San Francisco Burger King franchise from 2016 to 2019. But her boss consistently shorted her paychecks, and she is now owed more than $38,000, according to a June 2020 citation issued by state investigators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If she had received at least some of that money in a timely manner, it could have saved her family from losing their apartment, she said. Instead, when her next job, cleaning offices, ended during the pandemic, Crisostomo was unable to make rent. She and her children moved into the crowded home of a relative and relied on food banks to eat, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was left with nothing,” said Crisostomo, who said she’s not eligible for unemployment benefits. “It was really hard. … With at least some of that money, we wouldn’t have had so many limitations. I wouldn’t have left my apartment, I wouldn’t have gotten into debt with rent, with bills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crisostomo’s former employer, Golden Gate Restaurant Group Inc., was \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21192427-golden-gate-restaurant-group-inc-cure-letter-for-amended-citation-wa-568497-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">found liable\u003c/a> for a total of nearly $2 million for failing to pay more than 230 of its employees minimum wage, overtime or meal and rest breaks at several of the Burger King restaurants it operated in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the wronged employees has collected a cent from that citation, because — 19 months later — the state Labor Commissioner’s Office has not yet scheduled a hearing on the company’s appeal, said attorneys representing workers. Until that happens, the case cannot move forward, unless the employer chooses to settle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s so unfair that the state is not trying to speed this up,” said Crisostomo, an immigrant from El Salvador, speaking in Spanish. “They should be more strict with this type of employer and pressure them to follow the law. If it’s true that workers have rights, the state should enforce them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11903311\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53264_003_SanFrancisco_WageTheftSoniaCrisostomo_01242022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11903311\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53264_003_SanFrancisco_WageTheftSoniaCrisostomo_01242022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman standing on a street.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53264_003_SanFrancisco_WageTheftSoniaCrisostomo_01242022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53264_003_SanFrancisco_WageTheftSoniaCrisostomo_01242022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53264_003_SanFrancisco_WageTheftSoniaCrisostomo_01242022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53264_003_SanFrancisco_WageTheftSoniaCrisostomo_01242022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53264_003_SanFrancisco_WageTheftSoniaCrisostomo_01242022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sonia Crisostomo, 47, waits for the bus home after work in downtown San Francisco on Jan. 24, 2022. Her old employer owes her more than $38,000, state investigators found. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Neither Monu Singh, Golden Gate Restaurant Group’s CEO and president, nor Sanjay Ahuja, its secretary at the time of the investigation, returned KQED’s requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the company has taken advantage of the delay to shield its assets, which doesn’t bode well for the cheated employees, said Alexx Campbell, who is representing workers in the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The company that did this to them has been starting to move assets around and to shut down restaurants in San Francisco and is potentially making moves to avoid payment altogether,” said Campbell, an attorney with the nonprofit group Legal Aid at Work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Labor Commissioner’s Office declined several interview requests, and would not comment on hearing delays for this case or others investigated by its Bureau of Field Enforcement (BOFE), the branch of the agency that handles pay violations affecting multiple employees at a single company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, in 2019, agency officials acknowledged that delays were hurting workers. They said changes in the law had given them new tools to combat wage theft but made the process take longer. And they asked the Legislature for a budget increase to hire more staff for its \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/dlseWagesandHours.html\">Wage Claim Adjudication\u003c/a> (WCA) unit, whose officers generally handle appeals of both big BOFE citations and wage claims brought by individual workers — the latter of which totaled more than 32,000 in 2018. WCA may also refer more complex BOFE cases to the Labor Commissioner’s legal unit for an attorney to act as a hearing officer. [aside label=\"Related Coverage\" tag=\"labor-rights\"]In the \u003ca href=\"https://esd.dof.ca.gov/Documents/bcp/2021/FY2021_ORG7350_BCP3767.pdf\">budget request\u003c/a>, officials wrote that, by law, those individual hearings are supposed to take place within 120 days of the date of the complaint. But the average wait time for individuals was nearly 400 days in 2018, and administrators projected that it would grow to 572 days — 19 months — by 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With the WCA drowning in stale wage claims awaiting hearing, all the while receiving more new claims each year, the WCA unit is in desperate need of Deputies and Hearing Officers to address burgeoning processing times and ensure cheated workers are receiving justice in a reasonable amount of time,” wrote Carlos Torres, assistant chief of the WCA unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the pandemic hit, the backlog got significantly worse, as the agency temporarily halted in-person proceedings and struggled to conduct business remotely, advocates said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED tracked several large cases that have languished without a hearing, including:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>A $4.5 million \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2018/2018-40.pdf\">citation\u003c/a> against Cheesecake Factory Restaurants Inc. and contractors in San Diego and Orange counties for underpaying 559 janitorial workers. The fines were issued in June 2018, but 3 1/2 years later, a hearing has not yet been held, according to the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, a janitorial industry watchdog group.\u003c/li>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cli>A $12 million \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2019/2019-16.html\">citation\u003c/a> against RDV Construction Inc. in the Los Angeles area for withholding wages from more than a 1,000 workers. The fines were issued in February 2019, but no hearing has yet occurred nearly three years later, according to the Carpenters/Contractors Cooperation Committee, a group that helped tip the state to the violations.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>These cases represent just a few of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/DLSEReports.htm\">6,831 violations\u003c/a> BOFE cited in fiscal years 2017-2019, according to its enforcement reports to the Legislature. The proposed fines totaled more than $228 million, but only about 12% of that amount was collected in those years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As cases drag on, businesses can close or go bankrupt, while witnesses move away or give up on the case, complicating efforts to get restitution for workers, said Patrick Mulligan, who directs San Francisco’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mulligan’s office cited Golden Gate Restaurant Group, the Burger King franchisee, after its own investigation found the company violated a city health care ordinance. The company settled in September 2020, agreeing to pay employees more than $803,000 over the course of 10 years, of which about $150,000 has been collected, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Noting the long payment plan, Mulligan acknowledged the agreement was not “everything the workers deserved,” but said at least it’s money they can put in their pockets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11903335\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/IMG_7563.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11903335 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/IMG_7563.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people holding signs in Spanish, protesting in front of a Burger King restaurant.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1273\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/IMG_7563.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/IMG_7563-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/IMG_7563-1020x676.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/IMG_7563-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/IMG_7563-1536x1018.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers demand a Burger King franchisee pay wages owed to them, on Oct. 25, 2019. The company operating the franchise, Golden Gate Restaurant Group Inc. was cited by the state Labor Commissioner’s Office for multiple violations, including failing to pay workers minimum wage and overtime. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“For us, ultimately, our goal of establishing a strong atmosphere of labor enforcement means timely and responsive enforcement actions,” he said. “And then on the other side, it limits the amount of hardship for workers if the matter gets resolved as expeditiously as possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres, at the state Labor Commissioner’s WCA unit, recognized that delays give unscrupulous employers an “increased opportunity to further evade the responsibility of unpaid wages.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Low-wage workers may be in situations where they are forced to give up in the process … that may result in a paper judgment that leaves little promise of collectability after so much time has passed by,” wrote Torres in his 2019 budget request for more staffers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The unit, which was initially established to give workers a no-cost, quick alternative to suing an employer in state court, has \u003ca href=\"https://dof.ca.gov/Budget/Salaries_Wages_Supplement/documents/LWD_combined.pdf\">just 64 hearing officer positions\u003c/a>, according to state Department of Finance records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have way more cases than one person should be assigned,” said Renee Amador, legal director with the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund. “We have the Labor Commissioner’s Office who is passionate about enforcing the law. But if they don’t have the people that can do so, they’re [only] going to be able to do so much.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, the Legislature approved funding to increase the unit by 63 positions, including 14 new hearing officers, by mid-2024. And the agency has since hired more staff. But it’s unclear whether that has resulted in shorter processing times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Cortese said the agency remains inefficient, and plans to hold committee hearings on the delays in coming months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has been the case over the years at the Labor Commissioner’s. This is not a new problem,” Cortese said. “And that usually means the entire culture of the operation needs to be addressed and revisited and restructured.”[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post has been updated to reflect a potential additional step in the Labor Commissioner’s processing of large wage-theft cases.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "When an employer who's been cited for underpaying workers files an appeal, it often takes the state's labor agency years just to set a hearing, a delay that can be crushing for many lower-wage workers.",
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"title": "'It's So Unfair': Major Delays at State Labor Agency Leave Many Wage Theft Victims Unpaid | KQED",
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"headline": "'It's So Unfair': Major Delays at State Labor Agency Leave Many Wage Theft Victims Unpaid",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Thousands of California workers whose employers collectively owe them millions of dollars in unpaid wages are at risk of never seeing the money they earned, as the state watchdog agency investigating wage-theft cases is failing to resolve them in a timely way, according to labor enforcement experts and worker advocates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the businesses in question were cited by the California Labor Commissioner’s Office for systematically dodging labor laws, after investigators conducted lengthy reviews, including payroll record audits and interviews with employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Employers have the right to appeal those citations — which typically come with hefty fines — and most do, said worker attorneys. The next step is a hearing at the Labor Commissioner’s Office. But the agency, whose mission is to combat wage theft, can take years to schedule those hearings, delaying restitution for workers, most of whom are in lower-wage industries.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘This is exactly the opposite of what the government is supposed to be doing. Government should be stepping in and policing these employers that are ripping people off, and it’s not happening. And it’s causing real pain.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The longer the cases drag on, the harder it is for workers to collect what’s owed them, advocates said. The backlog has only worsened during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose, said the delays at the agency, also known as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, are “unacceptable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is exactly the opposite of what the government is supposed to be doing,” said Cortese, who chairs the state Senate Labor, Employment and Retirement Committee. “Government should be stepping in and policing these employers that are ripping people off, and it’s not happening. And it’s causing real pain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For workers living paycheck to paycheck, that pain is palpable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonia Crisostomo, a 47-year-old single mother, worked as a prep cook and cashier at a San Francisco Burger King franchise from 2016 to 2019. But her boss consistently shorted her paychecks, and she is now owed more than $38,000, according to a June 2020 citation issued by state investigators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If she had received at least some of that money in a timely manner, it could have saved her family from losing their apartment, she said. Instead, when her next job, cleaning offices, ended during the pandemic, Crisostomo was unable to make rent. She and her children moved into the crowded home of a relative and relied on food banks to eat, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was left with nothing,” said Crisostomo, who said she’s not eligible for unemployment benefits. “It was really hard. … With at least some of that money, we wouldn’t have had so many limitations. I wouldn’t have left my apartment, I wouldn’t have gotten into debt with rent, with bills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crisostomo’s former employer, Golden Gate Restaurant Group Inc., was \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21192427-golden-gate-restaurant-group-inc-cure-letter-for-amended-citation-wa-568497-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">found liable\u003c/a> for a total of nearly $2 million for failing to pay more than 230 of its employees minimum wage, overtime or meal and rest breaks at several of the Burger King restaurants it operated in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the wronged employees has collected a cent from that citation, because — 19 months later — the state Labor Commissioner’s Office has not yet scheduled a hearing on the company’s appeal, said attorneys representing workers. Until that happens, the case cannot move forward, unless the employer chooses to settle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s so unfair that the state is not trying to speed this up,” said Crisostomo, an immigrant from El Salvador, speaking in Spanish. “They should be more strict with this type of employer and pressure them to follow the law. If it’s true that workers have rights, the state should enforce them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11903311\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53264_003_SanFrancisco_WageTheftSoniaCrisostomo_01242022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11903311\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53264_003_SanFrancisco_WageTheftSoniaCrisostomo_01242022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman standing on a street.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53264_003_SanFrancisco_WageTheftSoniaCrisostomo_01242022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53264_003_SanFrancisco_WageTheftSoniaCrisostomo_01242022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53264_003_SanFrancisco_WageTheftSoniaCrisostomo_01242022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53264_003_SanFrancisco_WageTheftSoniaCrisostomo_01242022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53264_003_SanFrancisco_WageTheftSoniaCrisostomo_01242022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sonia Crisostomo, 47, waits for the bus home after work in downtown San Francisco on Jan. 24, 2022. Her old employer owes her more than $38,000, state investigators found. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Neither Monu Singh, Golden Gate Restaurant Group’s CEO and president, nor Sanjay Ahuja, its secretary at the time of the investigation, returned KQED’s requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the company has taken advantage of the delay to shield its assets, which doesn’t bode well for the cheated employees, said Alexx Campbell, who is representing workers in the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The company that did this to them has been starting to move assets around and to shut down restaurants in San Francisco and is potentially making moves to avoid payment altogether,” said Campbell, an attorney with the nonprofit group Legal Aid at Work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Labor Commissioner’s Office declined several interview requests, and would not comment on hearing delays for this case or others investigated by its Bureau of Field Enforcement (BOFE), the branch of the agency that handles pay violations affecting multiple employees at a single company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, in 2019, agency officials acknowledged that delays were hurting workers. They said changes in the law had given them new tools to combat wage theft but made the process take longer. And they asked the Legislature for a budget increase to hire more staff for its \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/dlseWagesandHours.html\">Wage Claim Adjudication\u003c/a> (WCA) unit, whose officers generally handle appeals of both big BOFE citations and wage claims brought by individual workers — the latter of which totaled more than 32,000 in 2018. WCA may also refer more complex BOFE cases to the Labor Commissioner’s legal unit for an attorney to act as a hearing officer. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In the \u003ca href=\"https://esd.dof.ca.gov/Documents/bcp/2021/FY2021_ORG7350_BCP3767.pdf\">budget request\u003c/a>, officials wrote that, by law, those individual hearings are supposed to take place within 120 days of the date of the complaint. But the average wait time for individuals was nearly 400 days in 2018, and administrators projected that it would grow to 572 days — 19 months — by 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With the WCA drowning in stale wage claims awaiting hearing, all the while receiving more new claims each year, the WCA unit is in desperate need of Deputies and Hearing Officers to address burgeoning processing times and ensure cheated workers are receiving justice in a reasonable amount of time,” wrote Carlos Torres, assistant chief of the WCA unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the pandemic hit, the backlog got significantly worse, as the agency temporarily halted in-person proceedings and struggled to conduct business remotely, advocates said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED tracked several large cases that have languished without a hearing, including:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>A $4.5 million \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2018/2018-40.pdf\">citation\u003c/a> against Cheesecake Factory Restaurants Inc. and contractors in San Diego and Orange counties for underpaying 559 janitorial workers. The fines were issued in June 2018, but 3 1/2 years later, a hearing has not yet been held, according to the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, a janitorial industry watchdog group.\u003c/li>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cli>A $12 million \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2019/2019-16.html\">citation\u003c/a> against RDV Construction Inc. in the Los Angeles area for withholding wages from more than a 1,000 workers. The fines were issued in February 2019, but no hearing has yet occurred nearly three years later, according to the Carpenters/Contractors Cooperation Committee, a group that helped tip the state to the violations.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>These cases represent just a few of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/DLSEReports.htm\">6,831 violations\u003c/a> BOFE cited in fiscal years 2017-2019, according to its enforcement reports to the Legislature. The proposed fines totaled more than $228 million, but only about 12% of that amount was collected in those years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As cases drag on, businesses can close or go bankrupt, while witnesses move away or give up on the case, complicating efforts to get restitution for workers, said Patrick Mulligan, who directs San Francisco’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mulligan’s office cited Golden Gate Restaurant Group, the Burger King franchisee, after its own investigation found the company violated a city health care ordinance. The company settled in September 2020, agreeing to pay employees more than $803,000 over the course of 10 years, of which about $150,000 has been collected, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Noting the long payment plan, Mulligan acknowledged the agreement was not “everything the workers deserved,” but said at least it’s money they can put in their pockets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11903335\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/IMG_7563.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11903335 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/IMG_7563.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people holding signs in Spanish, protesting in front of a Burger King restaurant.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1273\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/IMG_7563.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/IMG_7563-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/IMG_7563-1020x676.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/IMG_7563-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/IMG_7563-1536x1018.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers demand a Burger King franchisee pay wages owed to them, on Oct. 25, 2019. The company operating the franchise, Golden Gate Restaurant Group Inc. was cited by the state Labor Commissioner’s Office for multiple violations, including failing to pay workers minimum wage and overtime. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“For us, ultimately, our goal of establishing a strong atmosphere of labor enforcement means timely and responsive enforcement actions,” he said. “And then on the other side, it limits the amount of hardship for workers if the matter gets resolved as expeditiously as possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres, at the state Labor Commissioner’s WCA unit, recognized that delays give unscrupulous employers an “increased opportunity to further evade the responsibility of unpaid wages.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Low-wage workers may be in situations where they are forced to give up in the process … that may result in a paper judgment that leaves little promise of collectability after so much time has passed by,” wrote Torres in his 2019 budget request for more staffers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The unit, which was initially established to give workers a no-cost, quick alternative to suing an employer in state court, has \u003ca href=\"https://dof.ca.gov/Budget/Salaries_Wages_Supplement/documents/LWD_combined.pdf\">just 64 hearing officer positions\u003c/a>, according to state Department of Finance records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have way more cases than one person should be assigned,” said Renee Amador, legal director with the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund. “We have the Labor Commissioner’s Office who is passionate about enforcing the law. But if they don’t have the people that can do so, they’re [only] going to be able to do so much.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, the Legislature approved funding to increase the unit by 63 positions, including 14 new hearing officers, by mid-2024. And the agency has since hired more staff. But it’s unclear whether that has resulted in shorter processing times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Cortese said the agency remains inefficient, and plans to hold committee hearings on the delays in coming months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has been the case over the years at the Labor Commissioner’s. This is not a new problem,” Cortese said. “And that usually means the entire culture of the operation needs to be addressed and revisited and restructured.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "apple-fires-appletoo-leader-as-part-of-leak-probe-she-says-its-retaliation",
"title": "Apple Fires #AppleToo Leader as Part of Leak Probe. She Says It’s Retaliation",
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"headTitle": "Apple Fires #AppleToo Leader as Part of Leak Probe. She Says It’s Retaliation | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated October 15, 2021 at 11:46 AM PT\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apple has fired a lead organizer of the #AppleToo movement, as the company investigates multiple employees suspected of leaking internal documents to the media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Janneke Parrish, a program manager who had been with the company for more than five years, told NPR that she was pushed out on Thursday. Parrish said she was dismissed after Apple claimed she had deleted files and apps from her company phone amid an investigation into how details of a meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook leaked to the press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is retaliation. I have been one of the most visible members of #AppleToo. I know the risk of doing that,” Parrish said. “I see a consistent pattern when each of the members of #AppleToo are subjected to investigations or Apple leadership approaches them. There has been a pattern established.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://appletoo.us/\">#AppleToo\u003c/a> was spearheaded by Parrish and another Apple employee, Cher Scarlett, who is still at Apple but on medical leave and would not comment to NPR. The effort \u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/appletoo\">gathered hundreds of anonymous accounts\u003c/a> from Apple employees who highlighted alleged verbal abuse, sexual harassment, pay equity issues and other forms of workplace mistreatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was hoping to give a voice to those who have been ignored, gaslit or retaliated against for abuse in the workplace,” Parrish told NPR. “They are stories that echoed across the company.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apple spokesperson Josh Rosenstock said the company is committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive work environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We take all concerns seriously and we thoroughly investigate whenever a concern is raised, and out of respect for the privacy of any individuals involved, we do not discuss specific employee matters,” he told NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Apple employees who are supportive of #AppleToo say that, like Parrish, they see her ouster as a reprisal for workplace organizing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Retaliating against Janneke is not going to stop Apple workers from standing up for themselves,” said one employee who requested anonymity for fear of being targeted by the company. “There are many workers who support #AppleToo who are trying to break the culture of secrecy at the company, and they aren’t going to stop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"apple\"]A small but growing chorus of Silicon Valley workers, from those employed by industry giants \u003ca href=\"#increasinglycalling\">like Google\u003c/a> to workers at smaller companies like Glitch, Mapbox and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/06/30/1011387838/change-org-workers-form-a-union-giving-labor-activists-another-win-in-tech\">Change.org\u003c/a>, have in recent years been drawing attention to everything from the precarious arrangements of contract workers to workplace harassment and abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Apple, a company known for respectable pay and generous company perks, workers have long been deferential to leadership and kept complaints within the confines of the Cupertino-based company. But Parrish and others became fed up with what they saw as a lack of progress inside the company, so they began speaking out publicly and organizing colleagues around common causes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every internal avenue was closed,” Parrish said. “Leadership closed them all. When that happens, what other option do we have?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vince White, a lawyer representing Parrish, says Apple likely violated the law by firing his client.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re looking at a number of different retaliation claims under a variety of different statutes,” White said. “This is an act of retaliation that can very well lead to litigation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>News of the firing comes months after revelations surfaced that the National Labor Relations Board is investigating two charges against Apple.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One was filed by former senior engineering program manager Ashley Gjøvik, who claims that her manager at Apple harassed her and that the company gave her fewer responsibilities at work as a form of retaliation. In September, Apple fired Gjøvik for allegedly publicly sharing confidential company records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other charge was filed by Scarlett, the #AppleToo co-founder, who claimed Apple shut down her efforts to conduct company-wide pay-equity surveys, which she says she was doing to help confirm her allegations of gender-pay gaps. She said Apple even blocked her attempt to start a discussion on the workplace communication tool Slack about gender pay discrepancies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tech news website The Verge \u003ca href=\"https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/15/22727123/apple-fires-leader-apple-too-movement\">first reported\u003c/a> on Parrish’s firing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parrish said she has been overwhelmed with support from former colleagues at Apple, but she worries that her firing might have a chilling effect on other employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This shows that there are consequences for standing up and saying, ‘I disagree,’ ” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, she added, “I recognize how much this can galvanize people to do the right thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Editor’s note:\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cem> Apple is among NPR’s financial supporters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Apple+fires+%23AppleToo+leader+as+part+of+leak+probe.+She+says+it%27s+retaliation&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Janneke Parrish says she was fired from Apple as part of an investigation tracing the source of leaks to the press. She co-led the #AppleToo movement, which seeks to expose incidents of worker mistreatment at the company. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated October 15, 2021 at 11:46 AM PT\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apple has fired a lead organizer of the #AppleToo movement, as the company investigates multiple employees suspected of leaking internal documents to the media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Janneke Parrish, a program manager who had been with the company for more than five years, told NPR that she was pushed out on Thursday. Parrish said she was dismissed after Apple claimed she had deleted files and apps from her company phone amid an investigation into how details of a meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook leaked to the press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is retaliation. I have been one of the most visible members of #AppleToo. I know the risk of doing that,” Parrish said. “I see a consistent pattern when each of the members of #AppleToo are subjected to investigations or Apple leadership approaches them. There has been a pattern established.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://appletoo.us/\">#AppleToo\u003c/a> was spearheaded by Parrish and another Apple employee, Cher Scarlett, who is still at Apple but on medical leave and would not comment to NPR. The effort \u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/appletoo\">gathered hundreds of anonymous accounts\u003c/a> from Apple employees who highlighted alleged verbal abuse, sexual harassment, pay equity issues and other forms of workplace mistreatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was hoping to give a voice to those who have been ignored, gaslit or retaliated against for abuse in the workplace,” Parrish told NPR. “They are stories that echoed across the company.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apple spokesperson Josh Rosenstock said the company is committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive work environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We take all concerns seriously and we thoroughly investigate whenever a concern is raised, and out of respect for the privacy of any individuals involved, we do not discuss specific employee matters,” he told NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Apple employees who are supportive of #AppleToo say that, like Parrish, they see her ouster as a reprisal for workplace organizing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Retaliating against Janneke is not going to stop Apple workers from standing up for themselves,” said one employee who requested anonymity for fear of being targeted by the company. “There are many workers who support #AppleToo who are trying to break the culture of secrecy at the company, and they aren’t going to stop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>A small but growing chorus of Silicon Valley workers, from those employed by industry giants \u003ca href=\"#increasinglycalling\">like Google\u003c/a> to workers at smaller companies like Glitch, Mapbox and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/06/30/1011387838/change-org-workers-form-a-union-giving-labor-activists-another-win-in-tech\">Change.org\u003c/a>, have in recent years been drawing attention to everything from the precarious arrangements of contract workers to workplace harassment and abuse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Apple, a company known for respectable pay and generous company perks, workers have long been deferential to leadership and kept complaints within the confines of the Cupertino-based company. But Parrish and others became fed up with what they saw as a lack of progress inside the company, so they began speaking out publicly and organizing colleagues around common causes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every internal avenue was closed,” Parrish said. “Leadership closed them all. When that happens, what other option do we have?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vince White, a lawyer representing Parrish, says Apple likely violated the law by firing his client.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re looking at a number of different retaliation claims under a variety of different statutes,” White said. “This is an act of retaliation that can very well lead to litigation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>News of the firing comes months after revelations surfaced that the National Labor Relations Board is investigating two charges against Apple.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One was filed by former senior engineering program manager Ashley Gjøvik, who claims that her manager at Apple harassed her and that the company gave her fewer responsibilities at work as a form of retaliation. In September, Apple fired Gjøvik for allegedly publicly sharing confidential company records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other charge was filed by Scarlett, the #AppleToo co-founder, who claimed Apple shut down her efforts to conduct company-wide pay-equity surveys, which she says she was doing to help confirm her allegations of gender-pay gaps. She said Apple even blocked her attempt to start a discussion on the workplace communication tool Slack about gender pay discrepancies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tech news website The Verge \u003ca href=\"https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/15/22727123/apple-fires-leader-apple-too-movement\">first reported\u003c/a> on Parrish’s firing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parrish said she has been overwhelmed with support from former colleagues at Apple, but she worries that her firing might have a chilling effect on other employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This shows that there are consequences for standing up and saying, ‘I disagree,’ ” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, she added, “I recognize how much this can galvanize people to do the right thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Editor’s note:\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cem> Apple is among NPR’s financial supporters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Apple+fires+%23AppleToo+leader+as+part+of+leak+probe.+She+says+it%27s+retaliation&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "bill-regulating-computer-driven-productivity-quotas-at-california-warehouses-lands-on-gov-newsoms-desk",
"title": "Newsom Signs First-in-Nation Law Protecting California Workers in Retail Warehouses, Like Amazon's",
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"headTitle": "Newsom Signs First-in-Nation Law Protecting California Workers in Retail Warehouses, Like Amazon’s | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has become the first state to implement a law that addresses working conditions for warehouse workers, like those working for Amazon, Walmart and other major retailers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/09/22/governor-newsom-signs-nation-leading-legislation-expanding-protections-for-warehouse-workers/\">Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 701\u003c/a>, which takes effect in the new year, into law on Wednesday. The law aims to address the impact of quotas on worker injuries and health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It establishes new standards for companies to make clear to warehouse staff what their production quotas are. The legislation ensures workers cannot be fired or retaliated against for failing to meet an unsafe quota.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We cannot allow corporations to put profit over people. The hardworking warehouse employees who have helped sustain us during these unprecedented times should not have to risk injury or face punishment as a result of exploitative quotas that violate basic health and safety,” Newsom said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m proud to sign this legislation giving them the dignity, respect and safety they deserve and advancing California’s leadership at the forefront of workplace safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law gives the state Labor Commissioner the authority to issue citations to companies in violation of the new rules. The department is also allowed to access workers’ compensation data to find facilities where there are high rates of injury and investigate whether they are due to unsafe quotas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law also bars the use of algorithms that track rests and bathroom breaks, and specifically prohibits the firing of workers for failing to meet unsafe quotas because they are taking breaks in compliance with health and safety laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation would also bar companies from retaliating against workers who raise concerns about warehouse conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though not explicitly stated, the new rules are widely considered to be targeted toward Amazon. The Seattle-based behemoth runs more than 60 warehouses across the state, and is known for its demanding productivity requirements.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Sheheryar Kaoosji, head of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center\"]‘It’s not that those companies can’t afford to do the right thing. It’s what those companies can get away with. And if they’re not held accountable, that’s what they’ll continue to do.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amazon relies on its thousands of workers to fill its massive warehouses, which it calls “fulfillment centers.” During the pandemic, Americans have relied heavily on online shopping for their goods. In turn, the company, the second-largest employer in the U.S. behind Walmart, hired thousands of workers \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-to-hire-125000-full--and-part-time-logistics-employees-2021-09-14?mod=article_inline\">and plans to hire an additional 100,000 workers \u003c/a>this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers and labor organizations argue that Amazon’s warehouse rules create an unsafe work environment. \u003ca href=\"https://revealnews.org/article/amazon-injury-rates/\">Investigations \u003c/a>by various \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/06/01/amazon-osha-injury-rate/\">news organizations\u003c/a>, in addition to the labor-backed \u003ca href=\"https://thesoc.org/amazon-primed-for-pain/\">Strategic Organizing Center\u003c/a>, have found that \u003ca href=\"https://revealnews.org/article/how-amazon-hid-its-safety-crisis/\">the rate of serious injuries at Amazon warehouses has been nearly double the industry average\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tracked by algorithms, Amazon warehouse workers rush to pack and ship nonstop shopping orders that often must be delivered in a matter of hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While workers are on the job, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/09/08/1034776936/amazon-warehouse-workers-speed-quotas-california-bill\">Amazon watches their “time off task,”\u003c/a> which the company says is to monitor for “issues with the tools that people use.” But it also serves to identify underperforming workers. And that, critics say, essentially pressures workers to forgo their state-mandated breaks, or to wait until the end of their shifts to use the bathroom — creating unsafe and unfair working conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the bill, authored by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, is intended more generally to help state regulators get a better handle on how a growing number of employers are using tech in the workplace to control the productivity of their workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were about 206,700 workers in the warehousing and storage industry in California as of June. That figure, however, doesn’t include temporary workers, like the many likely to take on warehouse work in the run-up to the holiday shopping season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A significant portion of that workforce is employed by Amazon. Behind the big yellow “Place your order” button on the company’s site is a vast network of warehouses, filled with nearly 1 million non-union logistics employees across the country — 40,000 in the Inland Empire alone, according to Amazon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/12/01/367703789/amazon-unleashes-robot-army-to-send-your-holiday-packages-faster\">the tech-obsessed retailer is famous for using robots\u003c/a>, sensors and software to maximize productivity, it’s also infamous for burning out its workers, many of whom head to the exit doors suffering from repetitive stress injuries and, well, stress overall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How did you come up with this rate? Was it based on what your understanding of what a human body can do? Or was it based on what you think you need to get through in order to make a profit this quarter?” said Sheheryar Kaoosji, executive director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center in Ontario, California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the clock, an army of trucks and trains transport cargo from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to vast warehouses in the Inland Empire counties of San Bernardino and Riverside. There, imported goods are sorted and redistributed onto long-haul trucks, which move them to distribution centers across the West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amazon’s rivals, like Walmart and Home Depot, are nipping at the tech titan’s heels, eager to adopt the algorithm-driven productivity tracking tools employed by the company, which logistics experts widely agree is the industry leader in this practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not that those companies can’t afford to do the right thing,” said Kaoosji, who has pushed for them to institute humane working conditions that follow labor laws in spirit, as well as practice. “It’s what those companies can get away with. And if they’re not held accountable, that’s what they’ll continue to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]In \u003ca href=\"https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/5f/e6/725042574e2da4440c3844f7b40c/senate-judiciary-analysis-ab-7-1.pdf\">a letter this summer to the state Senate Judiciary Committee in support of her legislation\u003c/a>, Gonzalez wrote, “The demand for speed in these warehouses has led to the increasing use of workplace performance metrics and the imposition of work quotas that employees must meet or suffer adverse consequences, including potentially losing their jobs altogether. There is evidence strongly suggesting that the pressure to meet these quotas leads to significantly higher workplace injury rates.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Kaoosji, of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, argues there “will never be enough enforcement agents to address the millions of workplaces in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He and other industry watchers say labor regulation at the state level has historically been weak and largely complaint-driven, and that’s made many workers who are afraid of retaliation unlikely to seek redress from authorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The key is giving workers the protections, voice and power to feel like they can speak up at work about injustices and legal violations and not face immediate retaliation, termination,” Kaoosji said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He considers the new requirements laid out in AB 701 to be only modest improvements, a compromise between labor organizers and big business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amazon declined to comment specifically on the legislation, but a spokesperson said in an email that the company abides by state and federal laws, such as providing paid breaks and ready access to toilet facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you read some of the news reports, you might think we have no care for employees,” Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO at the time, said in his \u003ca href=\"https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/2020-letter-to-shareholders\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2020 letter to shareholders\u003c/a>. “In those reports, our employees are sometimes accused of being desperate souls and treated as robots. That’s not accurate. They’re sophisticated and thoughtful people who have options for where to work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rachel Michelin, president of the California Retailers Association, which strongly opposed the legislation, said the new rules will disrupt the supply chain and hurt consumers, even arguing that the shipment of COVID-19 tests from warehouses and distribution centers to hospitals, pharmacies and doctor’s offices will be slowed because of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are disappointed Governor Newsom signed AB 701, which will exacerbate our current supply chain issues, increase the cost of living for all Californians and eliminate good-paying jobs,” she \u003ca href=\"https://calretailers.com/cra-responds-to-governor-gavin-newsom-signing-ab-701-into-law/\">said in a statement Wednesday\u003c/a>.\u003cbr>\n[aside postID=\"news_11881047,news_11870797,forum_2010101882947\" label=\"Related Coverage\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With California’s ports facing record backlogs of ships waiting off the coast and inflation spiking to the fastest pace in 13 years, AB 701 will make matters worse for everyone — creating more back-ordered goods and higher prices for everything from clothes, diapers and food to auto parts, toys and pet supplies,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the absence of union representation on warehouse floors, a modest set of new workplace improvement measures may be all that can be accomplished right now, according to Catherine Fisk, a labor law professor at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amazon, among other logistics companies, has so far successfully fought attempts to unionize any constellation of its vast employee base.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Workers have been trying to unionize warehouses for years, with no success, because companies are so adept at thwarting it by using turnover, anti-union campaigns, restrictions on employee communication with each other, and prohibitions on union organizers from contacting workers,” Fisk said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/pdf/2019/Future-of-Warehouse-Work.pdf\">Beth Gutelius\u003c/a>, research director of the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois Chicago, has studied the logistics industry for more than a decade. She said that current state and federal laws are notably outdated, to the detriment of workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem with existing law is that, in general, in California and nationwide, it just hasn’t kept up with the state of technological change and productivity gains, coming at the cost of workers’ health and safety,” Gutelius said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gutelius noted, however, that she is encouraged by AB 701’s requirement that warehouse operators disclose quotas and work-speed metrics to their employees and to government agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now, it’s kind of a black box. And I think the case of Amazon offers us pretty ample evidence that we can’t just rely on companies to weigh these costs and benefits and act in the interests of workers,” she said. “Someone else has to do that and that is traditionally what government’s role has been.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post includes additional reporting from NPR’s Jaclyn Diaz.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The landmark bill, widely considered to be targeted toward Amazon, regulates the growing number of algorithm-driven benchmarks that increasingly dominate warehouse work.",
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"title": "Newsom Signs First-in-Nation Law Protecting California Workers in Retail Warehouses, Like Amazon's | KQED",
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"headline": "Newsom Signs First-in-Nation Law Protecting California Workers in Retail Warehouses, Like Amazon's",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has become the first state to implement a law that addresses working conditions for warehouse workers, like those working for Amazon, Walmart and other major retailers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/09/22/governor-newsom-signs-nation-leading-legislation-expanding-protections-for-warehouse-workers/\">Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 701\u003c/a>, which takes effect in the new year, into law on Wednesday. The law aims to address the impact of quotas on worker injuries and health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It establishes new standards for companies to make clear to warehouse staff what their production quotas are. The legislation ensures workers cannot be fired or retaliated against for failing to meet an unsafe quota.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We cannot allow corporations to put profit over people. The hardworking warehouse employees who have helped sustain us during these unprecedented times should not have to risk injury or face punishment as a result of exploitative quotas that violate basic health and safety,” Newsom said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m proud to sign this legislation giving them the dignity, respect and safety they deserve and advancing California’s leadership at the forefront of workplace safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law gives the state Labor Commissioner the authority to issue citations to companies in violation of the new rules. The department is also allowed to access workers’ compensation data to find facilities where there are high rates of injury and investigate whether they are due to unsafe quotas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law also bars the use of algorithms that track rests and bathroom breaks, and specifically prohibits the firing of workers for failing to meet unsafe quotas because they are taking breaks in compliance with health and safety laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation would also bar companies from retaliating against workers who raise concerns about warehouse conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though not explicitly stated, the new rules are widely considered to be targeted toward Amazon. The Seattle-based behemoth runs more than 60 warehouses across the state, and is known for its demanding productivity requirements.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘It’s not that those companies can’t afford to do the right thing. It’s what those companies can get away with. And if they’re not held accountable, that’s what they’ll continue to do.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amazon relies on its thousands of workers to fill its massive warehouses, which it calls “fulfillment centers.” During the pandemic, Americans have relied heavily on online shopping for their goods. In turn, the company, the second-largest employer in the U.S. behind Walmart, hired thousands of workers \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-to-hire-125000-full--and-part-time-logistics-employees-2021-09-14?mod=article_inline\">and plans to hire an additional 100,000 workers \u003c/a>this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers and labor organizations argue that Amazon’s warehouse rules create an unsafe work environment. \u003ca href=\"https://revealnews.org/article/amazon-injury-rates/\">Investigations \u003c/a>by various \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/06/01/amazon-osha-injury-rate/\">news organizations\u003c/a>, in addition to the labor-backed \u003ca href=\"https://thesoc.org/amazon-primed-for-pain/\">Strategic Organizing Center\u003c/a>, have found that \u003ca href=\"https://revealnews.org/article/how-amazon-hid-its-safety-crisis/\">the rate of serious injuries at Amazon warehouses has been nearly double the industry average\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tracked by algorithms, Amazon warehouse workers rush to pack and ship nonstop shopping orders that often must be delivered in a matter of hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While workers are on the job, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/09/08/1034776936/amazon-warehouse-workers-speed-quotas-california-bill\">Amazon watches their “time off task,”\u003c/a> which the company says is to monitor for “issues with the tools that people use.” But it also serves to identify underperforming workers. And that, critics say, essentially pressures workers to forgo their state-mandated breaks, or to wait until the end of their shifts to use the bathroom — creating unsafe and unfair working conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the bill, authored by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, is intended more generally to help state regulators get a better handle on how a growing number of employers are using tech in the workplace to control the productivity of their workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were about 206,700 workers in the warehousing and storage industry in California as of June. That figure, however, doesn’t include temporary workers, like the many likely to take on warehouse work in the run-up to the holiday shopping season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A significant portion of that workforce is employed by Amazon. Behind the big yellow “Place your order” button on the company’s site is a vast network of warehouses, filled with nearly 1 million non-union logistics employees across the country — 40,000 in the Inland Empire alone, according to Amazon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/12/01/367703789/amazon-unleashes-robot-army-to-send-your-holiday-packages-faster\">the tech-obsessed retailer is famous for using robots\u003c/a>, sensors and software to maximize productivity, it’s also infamous for burning out its workers, many of whom head to the exit doors suffering from repetitive stress injuries and, well, stress overall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How did you come up with this rate? Was it based on what your understanding of what a human body can do? Or was it based on what you think you need to get through in order to make a profit this quarter?” said Sheheryar Kaoosji, executive director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center in Ontario, California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the clock, an army of trucks and trains transport cargo from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to vast warehouses in the Inland Empire counties of San Bernardino and Riverside. There, imported goods are sorted and redistributed onto long-haul trucks, which move them to distribution centers across the West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amazon’s rivals, like Walmart and Home Depot, are nipping at the tech titan’s heels, eager to adopt the algorithm-driven productivity tracking tools employed by the company, which logistics experts widely agree is the industry leader in this practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not that those companies can’t afford to do the right thing,” said Kaoosji, who has pushed for them to institute humane working conditions that follow labor laws in spirit, as well as practice. “It’s what those companies can get away with. And if they’re not held accountable, that’s what they’ll continue to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/5f/e6/725042574e2da4440c3844f7b40c/senate-judiciary-analysis-ab-7-1.pdf\">a letter this summer to the state Senate Judiciary Committee in support of her legislation\u003c/a>, Gonzalez wrote, “The demand for speed in these warehouses has led to the increasing use of workplace performance metrics and the imposition of work quotas that employees must meet or suffer adverse consequences, including potentially losing their jobs altogether. There is evidence strongly suggesting that the pressure to meet these quotas leads to significantly higher workplace injury rates.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Kaoosji, of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, argues there “will never be enough enforcement agents to address the millions of workplaces in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He and other industry watchers say labor regulation at the state level has historically been weak and largely complaint-driven, and that’s made many workers who are afraid of retaliation unlikely to seek redress from authorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The key is giving workers the protections, voice and power to feel like they can speak up at work about injustices and legal violations and not face immediate retaliation, termination,” Kaoosji said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He considers the new requirements laid out in AB 701 to be only modest improvements, a compromise between labor organizers and big business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amazon declined to comment specifically on the legislation, but a spokesperson said in an email that the company abides by state and federal laws, such as providing paid breaks and ready access to toilet facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you read some of the news reports, you might think we have no care for employees,” Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO at the time, said in his \u003ca href=\"https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/2020-letter-to-shareholders\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2020 letter to shareholders\u003c/a>. “In those reports, our employees are sometimes accused of being desperate souls and treated as robots. That’s not accurate. They’re sophisticated and thoughtful people who have options for where to work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rachel Michelin, president of the California Retailers Association, which strongly opposed the legislation, said the new rules will disrupt the supply chain and hurt consumers, even arguing that the shipment of COVID-19 tests from warehouses and distribution centers to hospitals, pharmacies and doctor’s offices will be slowed because of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are disappointed Governor Newsom signed AB 701, which will exacerbate our current supply chain issues, increase the cost of living for all Californians and eliminate good-paying jobs,” she \u003ca href=\"https://calretailers.com/cra-responds-to-governor-gavin-newsom-signing-ab-701-into-law/\">said in a statement Wednesday\u003c/a>.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With California’s ports facing record backlogs of ships waiting off the coast and inflation spiking to the fastest pace in 13 years, AB 701 will make matters worse for everyone — creating more back-ordered goods and higher prices for everything from clothes, diapers and food to auto parts, toys and pet supplies,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the absence of union representation on warehouse floors, a modest set of new workplace improvement measures may be all that can be accomplished right now, according to Catherine Fisk, a labor law professor at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amazon, among other logistics companies, has so far successfully fought attempts to unionize any constellation of its vast employee base.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Workers have been trying to unionize warehouses for years, with no success, because companies are so adept at thwarting it by using turnover, anti-union campaigns, restrictions on employee communication with each other, and prohibitions on union organizers from contacting workers,” Fisk said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/pdf/2019/Future-of-Warehouse-Work.pdf\">Beth Gutelius\u003c/a>, research director of the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois Chicago, has studied the logistics industry for more than a decade. She said that current state and federal laws are notably outdated, to the detriment of workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem with existing law is that, in general, in California and nationwide, it just hasn’t kept up with the state of technological change and productivity gains, coming at the cost of workers’ health and safety,” Gutelius said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gutelius noted, however, that she is encouraged by AB 701’s requirement that warehouse operators disclose quotas and work-speed metrics to their employees and to government agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now, it’s kind of a black box. And I think the case of Amazon offers us pretty ample evidence that we can’t just rely on companies to weigh these costs and benefits and act in the interests of workers,” she said. “Someone else has to do that and that is traditionally what government’s role has been.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post includes additional reporting from NPR’s Jaclyn Diaz.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "why-california-workers-are-still-dying-from-heat-despite-protections",
"title": "Why California Workers Are Still Dying From Heat — Despite Protections",
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"headTitle": "Why California Workers Are Still Dying From Heat — Despite Protections | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>In the summer of 2005, a terrible three-week heat wave swept the West, driving temperatures to triple-digit levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four farmworkers working the fields of central California died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state quickly put in place emergency orders, which evolved into the first workplace heat standards in the nation: Employers would have to give employees water, rest and shade as they toiled in high temperatures. Until then, there were no rules when it came to hot weather and the workplace.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Frank Polizzi, Cal/OSHA spokesperson\"]‘We believe that virtually all heat-related deaths and illnesses can be prevented. Periods of high heat are part of our new reality worldwide, and definitely in California.’[/pullquote]Since then, California has seen hotter average temperatures in 12 of the past 16 years. Even as the climate emergency has grown more acute, the state’s once-groundbreaking heat-safety rules have not kept pace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public health experts and federal workplace regulators say they consider heat-related illness and death to be 100% preventable. But California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health — Cal/OSHA — the agency that enforces the heat standard, has been chronically underfunded and understaffed. The result, according to dozens of interviews, a review of government records and an analysis of worker heat-death cases: Farmworkers, firefighters, construction workers and others required to work in hot environments continue to die.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s failure to adequately invest in Cal/OSHA has undercut the agency’s ability to crack down on companies that violate the heat standard. Its most recent budget request admitted as much, describing enforcement as “minimal to non-existent due to the lack of occupational health inspectors.” Rising temperatures caused by climate change have compounded the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some say the standard is already obsolete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a startling point of view considering that California’s heat standard is held up as a model. Its water, rest and shade measures are considered both stringent and eminently achievable by former and current officials at the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Workers’ rights advocates and OSHA officials have decried the lack of a similar standard to protect workers nationwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Absent that safeguard, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/08/17/1026154042/hundreds-of-workers-have-died-from-heat-in-the-last-decade-and-its-getting-worse\">workers of color across the country have borne the brunt of dangerous heat in the U.S.\u003c/a>, according to an investigation by Columbia Journalism Investigations, NPR, KPCC and The California Newsroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA declined multiple requests for on-the-record interviews for this story. In response to 39 written questions from CJI and The California Newsroom, the agency stressed the need for businesses to do their part to help stem the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe that virtually all heat-related deaths and illnesses can be prevented,” Frank Polizzi, a Cal/OSHA spokesperson, wrote in a response on Aug. 13, 2021. “Periods of high heat are part of our new reality worldwide, and definitely in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Where things stand\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Over the past 10 years — during a period when state regulators lowered temperature limits that trigger workplace protections from 85 to 80 degrees — nearly four dozen California workers died from heatstroke and other heat-related illnesses. The deaths occurred across the state but were concentrated in the lower Central Valley, in and around Bakersfield, according to an analysis of federal data on worker heat deaths by CJI and NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts say the official death count doesn’t begin to reflect heat’s toll on workers. California, unlike other states, doesn’t record the number of serious worker injuries involving overnight hospital stays due to heatstroke and other heat-related illnesses. That makes it difficult to understand heat’s full impact on the state’s workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11886406\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1824-scaled-e1630006553116.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11886406 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1824-scaled-e1630006553116.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a long-sleeved shirt, T-shirt, apron, neck wrap, visor, mask and surgical gloves pulls leeks beneath a cloudless sky.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1635\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Sonia Bonce harvests leeks on a 90-degree day at Muranaka Farms in Moorpark. \u003ccite>(Jacob Margolis/LAist)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jisung Park, an economist at UCLA, studies the effects of rising temperatures on the labor force. Using a computer model of temperature increases over 20 years and workers’ compensation claims, he estimates that heat sickens, or contributes to injuries among, at least 15,000 California workers each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Park attributes the gap in part to misclassified injuries. Heat, for example, can cause a construction worker standing on a ladder to fall and get hurt, but the injury likely won’t be categorized as heat-related. Heat illnesses also occur at lower temperatures than expected; Park has found that workers experienced heat exhaustion and similar conditions on days when the temperature was as low as 75 degrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=california workers\"]Cal/OSHA said in its written response that the data the agency collects is not comparable to Park’s analysis. Insiders within the agency acknowledge the limitations of official data, however, and endorse the analysis. The agency also defended its record and said inspectors investigate every heat complaint reported by workers and advocates. In 2019, for instance, Cal/OSHA conducted more than 4,000 heat-related inspections and cited employers in 47% of them. Heat inspections, citations and fines have increased almost every year since the standard has been in effect, except for 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic affected such activities across the board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Cal/OSHA insiders say that accelerating temperatures across the state — especially in the thousands of miles of valleys, where temperatures now exceed 100 degrees more than a dozen times a year — have \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/08/17/1028542777/workers-are-dying-of-heat-outdoors-without-standards-to-protect-them\">made the 16-year-old standard outdated\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Extreme heat costs lives. CJI and NPR reporters analyzed 267 worker heat deaths recorded by the U.S. Department of Labor between 2010 and 2020 and compared the high temperature on the date of each incident to historic averages over 40 years. More than 66% of these deaths occurred when temperatures reached at least 90 degrees. In California — one of two states where at least 40 workers died — almost half of all deaths happened on days that were unusually hot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’ve seen over the last few years, certainly since I was chief of OSHA, is catastrophic warming of the earth,” said Ellen Widess, who led Cal/OSHA from 2011 to 2013. “The hundreds of thousands of farmworkers we depend on are extremely vulnerable, exploitable, dependent on these jobs, even in high heat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The current standards\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>While water always needs to be available, once the thermometer reads 80 degrees, California’s heat standard kicks in. Employers are required to provide shade to their workers. Companies must ease workers into a job to enable them to adapt to hot temperatures, a practice known as acclimatization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11886413\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11886413\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1.png\" alt=\"Two photos, one of a freestanding shade structure, one of a water cooler atop a plastic basket, both in the middle of a field.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1.png 3639w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1-800x262.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1-1020x334.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1-160x52.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1-1536x503.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1-2048x670.png 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1-1920x628.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California’s heat standard mandates that shade and water be available to workers throughout the day, as seen here at Muranaka Farms in Moorpark. \u003ccite>(Jason Margolis/LAist)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At 95 degrees, employers must offer additional safeguards: a 10-minute break every two hours, a team meeting to remind workers of the signs of heat illness, and the designation of an employee to call emergency services in the event of a heat incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is it enough?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Widess, who says she was forced out at Cal/OSHA during Jerry Brown’s third term as governor, said the state’s standard has “certainly improved” over the years but “remains inadequate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s also the issue of enforcement. The United Farm Workers has twice sued Cal/OSHA for what the labor group claimed was a systemic failure to enforce the rule. After a six-year legal battle, in 2015 the agency agreed to:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Commission enforcement audits.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Create a system to monitor heat-related worker complaints.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Set up a UFW-affiliated hotline so workers could report employers who flouted the standard.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Increase inspections and crack down on repeat offenders.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>In the five years since Cal/OSHA tightened its standard, agency data shows it issued thousands of citations. Most citations involved employers that didn’t offer heat training or prepare written heat-stress plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The audit reports, obtained by CJI and The California Newsroom, show that Cal/OSHA often failed to interview eyewitnesses about heat complaints if an inspector couldn’t find an obvious violation. At times, job sites named in complaints were dismantled and moved before an OSHA inspector ever reached them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency has fewer than 200 inspectors in total to police a state with 18 million workers. According to Cal/OSHA, it has only 35 employees working in enforcement who speak Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11886418\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11886418 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Three men in wide-brimmed hats chat near a stack of leeks in the middle of a field.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Juan Chavez speaks with colleagues while harvesting leeks on a 90-degree day at Muranaka Farms in Moorpark. \u003ccite>(Jason Margolis/LAist)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Garrett Brown, a former Cal/OSHA inspector who also served as a special assistant to Widess, has tracked the agency’s staff vacancies for years. As of July 31, at least 25% of its about 250 inspector positions remained open. About 33% of posts in its legal division were unfilled as of June, according to an analysis published on Brown’s website, \u003ca href=\"https://insidecalosha.org/\">Inside Cal/OSHA\u003c/a>. With such high turnover, Brown said, the agency’s inspectors simply can’t keep up with complaints. Were Cal/OSHA inspectors to visit every farm in the state annually, they’d be outmatched by the sheer number: There are more than 350 farms for each inspector.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA said it is hiring inspectors as “quickly as possible,” noting the 70 inspector positions it has filled since January 2020. Twenty-three of those posts involved internal promotions, resulting in additional vacancies. The agency denied it has experienced any hiring delays and said the candidate pool for workplace safety inspectors “is smaller than for other state classifications.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA lawyers often are outnumbered when companies appeal a citation by legal teams that flood the agency with paperwork to escape enforcement until the cases are resolved, Brown said.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An independent study commissioned by Cal/OSHA identified the need for as many as 258 additional positions. Earlier this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom released his budget that included $14.4 million for 70 new posts. Only a small fraction of those will be inspectors. In a statement to CJI and The California Newsroom, the governor’s office said it is considering a phased-in approach for hiring more Cal/OSHA employees in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most recent Cal/OSHA chief, Doug Parker, is awaiting confirmation to head federal OSHA, leaving the state agency without a permanent leader.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Garrett Brown, former Cal/OSHA inspector\"]‘You have an agency that’s barely able to do what it’s supposed to do and presents no threat to irresponsible employers.’[/pullquote]“You have an agency that’s barely able to do what it’s supposed to do,” Brown said, “and presents no threat to irresponsible employers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA laid out additional ways it is attempting to improve its enforcement practices, such as streamlining the citation process and reviewing protocols for closing cases. The agency said even one work-related fatality or serious illness is “too many.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cal/OSHA investigates all notifications of suspect work-related fatalities to determine the cause, identify violations and require employers to correct unsafe or unhealthy conditions,” the agency said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A repeat offender\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In 2017, a 16-year-old girl working in a watermelon field in Sutter grew ill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Cal/OSHA inspectors visited the field where the teenager had collapsed, they couldn’t examine the worksite because the harvest had finished and the workers had moved to a new location. Cal/OSHA interviewed the worker and her mother through a translator and cited the company that hired them, Ceja Reyes, for not making them aware of the dangers of heat. Cal/OSHA fined the company $31,365 and told it to make sure all employees received heat training.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ceja Reyes, based in Sutter County, provides contract farm laborers. Cal/OSHA has cited the company for at least six heat violations in the last decade — many of them after the agency said Ceja Reyes failed to properly train workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roberto Ceja, president and partner at Ceja Reyes, refuted Cal/OSHA’s findings. He said in an interview that the mother and daughter had been trained, but the company forgot to have them sign off on their training sheets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly two years after the teenager got sick on the job, Cal/OSHA found that Ceja Reyes failed to provide its heat plan to an inspector who made an on-site visit. Cal/OSHA fined the company another $635 for failing to make the plan readily available to workers. Cal/OSHA’s heat program coordinator suggested in the investigative file that Ceja Reyes be considered a repeat offender in the case, which would have meant higher possible fines for similar violations in the future. But the acting district manager at the time declined that designation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ceja blamed Cal/OSHA for the string of violations. He said inspectors interpret the law in various ways, making it impossible for farms and contractors to keep up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think their inspectors have plenty of training before they send [them] to the field,” Ceja said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ceja said he supports more stringent heat rules, such as halting all work at 95 degrees, which he said his company does in most cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Why it matters\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Put into practice, heat standards can work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September of last year, Sonia Bonce was working at the Muranaka Farm in Moorpark. The temperature was rising steadily, and it was beyond 90 degrees by lunchtime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11886420\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1854-scaled-e1631073034135.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11886420 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1854-scaled-e1631073034135.jpg\" alt=\"A line of five vehicles at the edge of a rocky field, with car doors and trunks propped open for workers to sit and lean.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers at Muranaka Farms take a break from harvesting leeks to eat lunch. \u003ccite>(Jason Margolis/LAist)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When Bonce stood up to take a lunch break and began walking toward the shade, her vision became blurry, her legs weak. She passed out and hit her head. The farm’s foreman, recognizing the signs of heat-related illness, alerted a supervisor, who called an ambulance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She felt exhausted and sore for a couple of days; otherwise, there were no lingering physical effects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonce, who has worked the fields since leaving El Salvador more than a decade ago, was spared serious injury or death in part because of her employer’s buy-in. Muranaka’s supervisors noticed the warning signs of heat illness and responded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other employers have not been as attentive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maria Jimenez, 17, traveled 2,500 miles from her hometown of Oaxaca, Mexico, to rural Lodi to find work after her father died. Her uncle, Doroteo Jimenez, had worked in the area for two decades. Maria was employed by Merced Farm Labor Contractors and soon found herself tying grapes into bundles at a local vineyard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On May 14, 2008, the temperature rose to 86 degrees, seven degrees hotter than the average high for that date over the previous 40 years. Maria was working in the vineyard without shade or water breaks, as required by the heat-safety rules. She became dehydrated and fainted. Another employee took her to a drugstore to try to revive her with rubbing alcohol before bringing her to a hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By then, it was too late. Jimenez had a core body temperature of 108 degrees — hot enough for the brain, liver and kidneys to shut down. Her heart stopped six times while doctors tried to revive her. It was then they learned she was pregnant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Joaquin County filed criminal manslaughter charges against the owner, safety director and supervisor of Merced Farm, which eventually was shuttered by the state. Cal/OSHA imposed a fine of more than $250,000. In 2011, the company’s executives pleaded no contest to failing to provide shade and were sentenced to community service, $1,370 in fines and no jail time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a company supervisor first contacted him by phone when his niece collapsed, Doroteo Jimenez remembers the supervisor saying she was dizzy. He didn’t think it was that serious. He only realized the gravity of her injuries when he went to visit her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At that point, I couldn’t even talk to her anymore,” he said. She died the next day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ordeal prompted Doroteo and his wife, Juana, to join union leaders and other activists to push for farmworker protections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91240378\">Hundreds of workers walked with Doroteo and Juana some 50 miles to the state Capitol carrying two coffins\u003c/a> over several days to draw attention to Maria’s death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four years later, the state fortified its heat standard. This time, the state required employers to make water readily available, expand shade coverage and increase the number of breaks. In 2018, on the 10th anniversary of Jimenez’s death, the standard was renamed in her memory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There have been many deaths before,” Doroteo said in Spanish through a translator. “I said that I am going to do something that would not just be thrown away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A broader problem\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>California’s farmworkers aren’t the only workers dying from heat. In the last decade, there have been 10 deaths in construction and four deaths in landscaping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For California’s workers, the difference between a heat standard that works and one that doesn’t often hinges on employers’ good faith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonia Bonce, the farmworker at Muranaka, said in Spanish through a translator that she appreciates how her employer responded to her bout with heat exhaustion. The company agreed to cover her medical expenses, including the cost of the ambulance. She was allowed to take off the two work days she needed to recuperate, though she said she had to forgo her earnings those days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11886425\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1766-scaled-e1630008683701.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11886425 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1766-scaled-e1630008683701.jpg\" alt=\"A tractor rolls thorough a field of leeks.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworkers processing a field of leeks on a 90-degree day at Muranaka Farms. \u003ccite>(Jason Margolis/LAist)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The UFW’s Roman Pinal, who organizes laborers in California’s fields, commended the farm’s management for allowing workers to speak up whenever they see problems — a rarity, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Valuing human lives and a little bit less the production,” Pinal said. “That’s when we’re heading in the right direction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many employers aren’t as conscientious. Until Cal/OSHA hires more inspectors and becomes more proactive, former inspector Brown said, the agency won’t make significant headway against heat deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with increased inspections, California’s existing heat standard may need another boost. In Moorpark, for instance, where Muranaka Farm is located, the average maximum temperature has risen one degree in the 16 years since the standard was implemented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some Cal/OSHA insiders said state lawmakers should consider mandating a split work day for outdoor laborers to address the ever-escalating temperatures. During the record-breaking heat wave that blanketed the Pacific Northwest in June, many farms switched to early morning and late-evening hours so workers could avoid the most punishing conditions. Public health officials already recommend that workers avoid midday heat whenever possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others advocate for more drastic labor reforms, such as canceling work on days above 105 degrees. The human body, they say, is simply not equipped to endure such temperatures over long periods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enhanced protections can’t come soon enough. At Muranaka Farm in June, a crew of sweat-soaked farmworkers harvested leeks under the scorching sun. The temperature exceeded 90 degrees that day — the second day of an early heat wave. Nearly two dozen laborers, aligned in a row on their hands and knees, plucked the long-stemmed plants from the dirt. They sliced off extraneous leaves with their knives and tossed the vegetables into a pile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already this summer, Bonce has felt heat overtake her while she is in the fields. Her chest grows tight and her head spins. Recognizing the warning signs, she’s taken some time off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is hot. It’s not easy work,” Bonce said. “We are struggling every single day to do this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Brian Edwards reported this story as a fellow for Columbia Journalism Investigations, an investigative reporting unit at the Columbia Journalism School in New York. Jacob Margolis is a reporter at KPCC and LAist, and a member of The California Newsroom. David Nickerson, a reporting fellow at CJI; Robert Benincasa, a senior data reporter at NPR; and Cascade Tuholske, a climate impact scientist at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, contributed to the data analysis. Public Health Watch, an independent investigative nonprofit, helped produce this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "California is seen as a nationwide leader in hot-weather protections, but its workers are still getting sick and dying from heat. Experts and insiders say climate change and a dysfunctional workplace regulatory agency are to blame.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In the summer of 2005, a terrible three-week heat wave swept the West, driving temperatures to triple-digit levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four farmworkers working the fields of central California died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state quickly put in place emergency orders, which evolved into the first workplace heat standards in the nation: Employers would have to give employees water, rest and shade as they toiled in high temperatures. Until then, there were no rules when it came to hot weather and the workplace.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘We believe that virtually all heat-related deaths and illnesses can be prevented. Periods of high heat are part of our new reality worldwide, and definitely in California.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Since then, California has seen hotter average temperatures in 12 of the past 16 years. Even as the climate emergency has grown more acute, the state’s once-groundbreaking heat-safety rules have not kept pace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public health experts and federal workplace regulators say they consider heat-related illness and death to be 100% preventable. But California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health — Cal/OSHA — the agency that enforces the heat standard, has been chronically underfunded and understaffed. The result, according to dozens of interviews, a review of government records and an analysis of worker heat-death cases: Farmworkers, firefighters, construction workers and others required to work in hot environments continue to die.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s failure to adequately invest in Cal/OSHA has undercut the agency’s ability to crack down on companies that violate the heat standard. Its most recent budget request admitted as much, describing enforcement as “minimal to non-existent due to the lack of occupational health inspectors.” Rising temperatures caused by climate change have compounded the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some say the standard is already obsolete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a startling point of view considering that California’s heat standard is held up as a model. Its water, rest and shade measures are considered both stringent and eminently achievable by former and current officials at the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Workers’ rights advocates and OSHA officials have decried the lack of a similar standard to protect workers nationwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Absent that safeguard, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/08/17/1026154042/hundreds-of-workers-have-died-from-heat-in-the-last-decade-and-its-getting-worse\">workers of color across the country have borne the brunt of dangerous heat in the U.S.\u003c/a>, according to an investigation by Columbia Journalism Investigations, NPR, KPCC and The California Newsroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA declined multiple requests for on-the-record interviews for this story. In response to 39 written questions from CJI and The California Newsroom, the agency stressed the need for businesses to do their part to help stem the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe that virtually all heat-related deaths and illnesses can be prevented,” Frank Polizzi, a Cal/OSHA spokesperson, wrote in a response on Aug. 13, 2021. “Periods of high heat are part of our new reality worldwide, and definitely in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Where things stand\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Over the past 10 years — during a period when state regulators lowered temperature limits that trigger workplace protections from 85 to 80 degrees — nearly four dozen California workers died from heatstroke and other heat-related illnesses. The deaths occurred across the state but were concentrated in the lower Central Valley, in and around Bakersfield, according to an analysis of federal data on worker heat deaths by CJI and NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts say the official death count doesn’t begin to reflect heat’s toll on workers. California, unlike other states, doesn’t record the number of serious worker injuries involving overnight hospital stays due to heatstroke and other heat-related illnesses. That makes it difficult to understand heat’s full impact on the state’s workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11886406\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1824-scaled-e1630006553116.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11886406 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1824-scaled-e1630006553116.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a long-sleeved shirt, T-shirt, apron, neck wrap, visor, mask and surgical gloves pulls leeks beneath a cloudless sky.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1635\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Sonia Bonce harvests leeks on a 90-degree day at Muranaka Farms in Moorpark. \u003ccite>(Jacob Margolis/LAist)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jisung Park, an economist at UCLA, studies the effects of rising temperatures on the labor force. Using a computer model of temperature increases over 20 years and workers’ compensation claims, he estimates that heat sickens, or contributes to injuries among, at least 15,000 California workers each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Park attributes the gap in part to misclassified injuries. Heat, for example, can cause a construction worker standing on a ladder to fall and get hurt, but the injury likely won’t be categorized as heat-related. Heat illnesses also occur at lower temperatures than expected; Park has found that workers experienced heat exhaustion and similar conditions on days when the temperature was as low as 75 degrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Cal/OSHA said in its written response that the data the agency collects is not comparable to Park’s analysis. Insiders within the agency acknowledge the limitations of official data, however, and endorse the analysis. The agency also defended its record and said inspectors investigate every heat complaint reported by workers and advocates. In 2019, for instance, Cal/OSHA conducted more than 4,000 heat-related inspections and cited employers in 47% of them. Heat inspections, citations and fines have increased almost every year since the standard has been in effect, except for 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic affected such activities across the board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Cal/OSHA insiders say that accelerating temperatures across the state — especially in the thousands of miles of valleys, where temperatures now exceed 100 degrees more than a dozen times a year — have \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/08/17/1028542777/workers-are-dying-of-heat-outdoors-without-standards-to-protect-them\">made the 16-year-old standard outdated\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Extreme heat costs lives. CJI and NPR reporters analyzed 267 worker heat deaths recorded by the U.S. Department of Labor between 2010 and 2020 and compared the high temperature on the date of each incident to historic averages over 40 years. More than 66% of these deaths occurred when temperatures reached at least 90 degrees. In California — one of two states where at least 40 workers died — almost half of all deaths happened on days that were unusually hot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’ve seen over the last few years, certainly since I was chief of OSHA, is catastrophic warming of the earth,” said Ellen Widess, who led Cal/OSHA from 2011 to 2013. “The hundreds of thousands of farmworkers we depend on are extremely vulnerable, exploitable, dependent on these jobs, even in high heat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The current standards\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>While water always needs to be available, once the thermometer reads 80 degrees, California’s heat standard kicks in. Employers are required to provide shade to their workers. Companies must ease workers into a job to enable them to adapt to hot temperatures, a practice known as acclimatization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11886413\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11886413\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1.png\" alt=\"Two photos, one of a freestanding shade structure, one of a water cooler atop a plastic basket, both in the middle of a field.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1.png 3639w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1-800x262.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1-1020x334.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1-160x52.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1-1536x503.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1-2048x670.png 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/water-shade-1-1920x628.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California’s heat standard mandates that shade and water be available to workers throughout the day, as seen here at Muranaka Farms in Moorpark. \u003ccite>(Jason Margolis/LAist)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At 95 degrees, employers must offer additional safeguards: a 10-minute break every two hours, a team meeting to remind workers of the signs of heat illness, and the designation of an employee to call emergency services in the event of a heat incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is it enough?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Widess, who says she was forced out at Cal/OSHA during Jerry Brown’s third term as governor, said the state’s standard has “certainly improved” over the years but “remains inadequate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s also the issue of enforcement. The United Farm Workers has twice sued Cal/OSHA for what the labor group claimed was a systemic failure to enforce the rule. After a six-year legal battle, in 2015 the agency agreed to:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Commission enforcement audits.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Create a system to monitor heat-related worker complaints.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Set up a UFW-affiliated hotline so workers could report employers who flouted the standard.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Increase inspections and crack down on repeat offenders.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>In the five years since Cal/OSHA tightened its standard, agency data shows it issued thousands of citations. Most citations involved employers that didn’t offer heat training or prepare written heat-stress plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The audit reports, obtained by CJI and The California Newsroom, show that Cal/OSHA often failed to interview eyewitnesses about heat complaints if an inspector couldn’t find an obvious violation. At times, job sites named in complaints were dismantled and moved before an OSHA inspector ever reached them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency has fewer than 200 inspectors in total to police a state with 18 million workers. According to Cal/OSHA, it has only 35 employees working in enforcement who speak Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11886418\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11886418 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Three men in wide-brimmed hats chat near a stack of leeks in the middle of a field.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1833-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Juan Chavez speaks with colleagues while harvesting leeks on a 90-degree day at Muranaka Farms in Moorpark. \u003ccite>(Jason Margolis/LAist)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Garrett Brown, a former Cal/OSHA inspector who also served as a special assistant to Widess, has tracked the agency’s staff vacancies for years. As of July 31, at least 25% of its about 250 inspector positions remained open. About 33% of posts in its legal division were unfilled as of June, according to an analysis published on Brown’s website, \u003ca href=\"https://insidecalosha.org/\">Inside Cal/OSHA\u003c/a>. With such high turnover, Brown said, the agency’s inspectors simply can’t keep up with complaints. Were Cal/OSHA inspectors to visit every farm in the state annually, they’d be outmatched by the sheer number: There are more than 350 farms for each inspector.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA said it is hiring inspectors as “quickly as possible,” noting the 70 inspector positions it has filled since January 2020. Twenty-three of those posts involved internal promotions, resulting in additional vacancies. The agency denied it has experienced any hiring delays and said the candidate pool for workplace safety inspectors “is smaller than for other state classifications.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA lawyers often are outnumbered when companies appeal a citation by legal teams that flood the agency with paperwork to escape enforcement until the cases are resolved, Brown said.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An independent study commissioned by Cal/OSHA identified the need for as many as 258 additional positions. Earlier this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom released his budget that included $14.4 million for 70 new posts. Only a small fraction of those will be inspectors. In a statement to CJI and The California Newsroom, the governor’s office said it is considering a phased-in approach for hiring more Cal/OSHA employees in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most recent Cal/OSHA chief, Doug Parker, is awaiting confirmation to head federal OSHA, leaving the state agency without a permanent leader.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘You have an agency that’s barely able to do what it’s supposed to do and presents no threat to irresponsible employers.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“You have an agency that’s barely able to do what it’s supposed to do,” Brown said, “and presents no threat to irresponsible employers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA laid out additional ways it is attempting to improve its enforcement practices, such as streamlining the citation process and reviewing protocols for closing cases. The agency said even one work-related fatality or serious illness is “too many.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cal/OSHA investigates all notifications of suspect work-related fatalities to determine the cause, identify violations and require employers to correct unsafe or unhealthy conditions,” the agency said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A repeat offender\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In 2017, a 16-year-old girl working in a watermelon field in Sutter grew ill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Cal/OSHA inspectors visited the field where the teenager had collapsed, they couldn’t examine the worksite because the harvest had finished and the workers had moved to a new location. Cal/OSHA interviewed the worker and her mother through a translator and cited the company that hired them, Ceja Reyes, for not making them aware of the dangers of heat. Cal/OSHA fined the company $31,365 and told it to make sure all employees received heat training.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ceja Reyes, based in Sutter County, provides contract farm laborers. Cal/OSHA has cited the company for at least six heat violations in the last decade — many of them after the agency said Ceja Reyes failed to properly train workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roberto Ceja, president and partner at Ceja Reyes, refuted Cal/OSHA’s findings. He said in an interview that the mother and daughter had been trained, but the company forgot to have them sign off on their training sheets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly two years after the teenager got sick on the job, Cal/OSHA found that Ceja Reyes failed to provide its heat plan to an inspector who made an on-site visit. Cal/OSHA fined the company another $635 for failing to make the plan readily available to workers. Cal/OSHA’s heat program coordinator suggested in the investigative file that Ceja Reyes be considered a repeat offender in the case, which would have meant higher possible fines for similar violations in the future. But the acting district manager at the time declined that designation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ceja blamed Cal/OSHA for the string of violations. He said inspectors interpret the law in various ways, making it impossible for farms and contractors to keep up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think their inspectors have plenty of training before they send [them] to the field,” Ceja said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ceja said he supports more stringent heat rules, such as halting all work at 95 degrees, which he said his company does in most cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Why it matters\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Put into practice, heat standards can work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September of last year, Sonia Bonce was working at the Muranaka Farm in Moorpark. The temperature was rising steadily, and it was beyond 90 degrees by lunchtime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11886420\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1854-scaled-e1631073034135.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11886420 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1854-scaled-e1631073034135.jpg\" alt=\"A line of five vehicles at the edge of a rocky field, with car doors and trunks propped open for workers to sit and lean.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers at Muranaka Farms take a break from harvesting leeks to eat lunch. \u003ccite>(Jason Margolis/LAist)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When Bonce stood up to take a lunch break and began walking toward the shade, her vision became blurry, her legs weak. She passed out and hit her head. The farm’s foreman, recognizing the signs of heat-related illness, alerted a supervisor, who called an ambulance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She felt exhausted and sore for a couple of days; otherwise, there were no lingering physical effects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonce, who has worked the fields since leaving El Salvador more than a decade ago, was spared serious injury or death in part because of her employer’s buy-in. Muranaka’s supervisors noticed the warning signs of heat illness and responded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other employers have not been as attentive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maria Jimenez, 17, traveled 2,500 miles from her hometown of Oaxaca, Mexico, to rural Lodi to find work after her father died. Her uncle, Doroteo Jimenez, had worked in the area for two decades. Maria was employed by Merced Farm Labor Contractors and soon found herself tying grapes into bundles at a local vineyard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On May 14, 2008, the temperature rose to 86 degrees, seven degrees hotter than the average high for that date over the previous 40 years. Maria was working in the vineyard without shade or water breaks, as required by the heat-safety rules. She became dehydrated and fainted. Another employee took her to a drugstore to try to revive her with rubbing alcohol before bringing her to a hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By then, it was too late. Jimenez had a core body temperature of 108 degrees — hot enough for the brain, liver and kidneys to shut down. Her heart stopped six times while doctors tried to revive her. It was then they learned she was pregnant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Joaquin County filed criminal manslaughter charges against the owner, safety director and supervisor of Merced Farm, which eventually was shuttered by the state. Cal/OSHA imposed a fine of more than $250,000. In 2011, the company’s executives pleaded no contest to failing to provide shade and were sentenced to community service, $1,370 in fines and no jail time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a company supervisor first contacted him by phone when his niece collapsed, Doroteo Jimenez remembers the supervisor saying she was dizzy. He didn’t think it was that serious. He only realized the gravity of her injuries when he went to visit her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At that point, I couldn’t even talk to her anymore,” he said. She died the next day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ordeal prompted Doroteo and his wife, Juana, to join union leaders and other activists to push for farmworker protections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91240378\">Hundreds of workers walked with Doroteo and Juana some 50 miles to the state Capitol carrying two coffins\u003c/a> over several days to draw attention to Maria’s death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four years later, the state fortified its heat standard. This time, the state required employers to make water readily available, expand shade coverage and increase the number of breaks. In 2018, on the 10th anniversary of Jimenez’s death, the standard was renamed in her memory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There have been many deaths before,” Doroteo said in Spanish through a translator. “I said that I am going to do something that would not just be thrown away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A broader problem\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>California’s farmworkers aren’t the only workers dying from heat. In the last decade, there have been 10 deaths in construction and four deaths in landscaping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For California’s workers, the difference between a heat standard that works and one that doesn’t often hinges on employers’ good faith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonia Bonce, the farmworker at Muranaka, said in Spanish through a translator that she appreciates how her employer responded to her bout with heat exhaustion. The company agreed to cover her medical expenses, including the cost of the ambulance. She was allowed to take off the two work days she needed to recuperate, though she said she had to forgo her earnings those days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11886425\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1766-scaled-e1630008683701.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11886425 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/DSCF1766-scaled-e1630008683701.jpg\" alt=\"A tractor rolls thorough a field of leeks.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworkers processing a field of leeks on a 90-degree day at Muranaka Farms. \u003ccite>(Jason Margolis/LAist)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The UFW’s Roman Pinal, who organizes laborers in California’s fields, commended the farm’s management for allowing workers to speak up whenever they see problems — a rarity, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Valuing human lives and a little bit less the production,” Pinal said. “That’s when we’re heading in the right direction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many employers aren’t as conscientious. Until Cal/OSHA hires more inspectors and becomes more proactive, former inspector Brown said, the agency won’t make significant headway against heat deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with increased inspections, California’s existing heat standard may need another boost. In Moorpark, for instance, where Muranaka Farm is located, the average maximum temperature has risen one degree in the 16 years since the standard was implemented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some Cal/OSHA insiders said state lawmakers should consider mandating a split work day for outdoor laborers to address the ever-escalating temperatures. During the record-breaking heat wave that blanketed the Pacific Northwest in June, many farms switched to early morning and late-evening hours so workers could avoid the most punishing conditions. Public health officials already recommend that workers avoid midday heat whenever possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others advocate for more drastic labor reforms, such as canceling work on days above 105 degrees. The human body, they say, is simply not equipped to endure such temperatures over long periods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enhanced protections can’t come soon enough. At Muranaka Farm in June, a crew of sweat-soaked farmworkers harvested leeks under the scorching sun. The temperature exceeded 90 degrees that day — the second day of an early heat wave. Nearly two dozen laborers, aligned in a row on their hands and knees, plucked the long-stemmed plants from the dirt. They sliced off extraneous leaves with their knives and tossed the vegetables into a pile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already this summer, Bonce has felt heat overtake her while she is in the fields. Her chest grows tight and her head spins. Recognizing the warning signs, she’s taken some time off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is hot. It’s not easy work,” Bonce said. “We are struggling every single day to do this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Brian Edwards reported this story as a fellow for Columbia Journalism Investigations, an investigative reporting unit at the Columbia Journalism School in New York. Jacob Margolis is a reporter at KPCC and LAist, and a member of The California Newsroom. David Nickerson, a reporting fellow at CJI; Robert Benincasa, a senior data reporter at NPR; and Cascade Tuholske, a climate impact scientist at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, contributed to the data analysis. Public Health Watch, an independent investigative nonprofit, helped produce this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "California Poised to Offer Public Health Care to Undocumented Elders in 'Historic Moment'",
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"content": "\u003cp>Laura, 76, has not seen a doctor for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The former farmworker, who did not want her last name used because of her immigration status, said she is losing her eyesight and her feet are often swollen and in pain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A grandmother, Laura also suffers from headaches and shortness of breath, months after she became seriously ill with COVID-19 during the winter surge. Through it all, she has relied on home remedies and not sought medical care because she lacks health insurance, she said, in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t have any money. And at my age, there’s no work,” said Laura, who picked watermelon, zucchini, pumpkin and other crops for more than 20 years in fields in Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Laura may soon get access to the medical services she desperately needs, at little or no cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is on the verge of a historic step to offer public health insurance to low-income undocumented older adults — a population that has been particularly vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic but left out of federal assistance programs and other safety nets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders are expected to announce an expansion to the Medi-Cal program in the coming days as part of a final deal on the state budget, according to advocates and legislative aides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most recent negotiations in Sacramento have centered on the lower age limit for those who will be newly eligible: 50 and older, as lawmakers have previously proposed; 60 and older, as Newsom offered; or somewhere in between.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are as certain as we can be that there will be something that comes into the final budget,” said Sarah Dar, who directs health and public benefits policy at the California Immigrant Policy Center. “And it’s really just a matter of ‘What’s the age they land on?‘”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Luz Gallegos, director of TODEC, a legal center and immigrant justice organization\"]‘California continues to step up and defend all Californians, especially those who are most vulnerable, who don’t have any access to safety nets, but who contribute to our state economy, have been paying taxes… and have seen nothing in return.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014, then-state Sen. Ricardo Lara introduced the first (unsuccessful) \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1005\">bill\u003c/a> to make undocumented immigrants eligible for public health coverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, California has enrolled undocumented children in full-scope Medi-Cal, offering free or low-cost preventative care, doctor visits, prescriptions, dental care, vision care and other services. Last year, the state became the first in the nation to offer health coverage to undocumented young adults through age 25.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But more than 1.3 million undocumented Californians are projected to lack health insurance next year, remaining the largest uninsured group in the state, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/undocumented-californians-projected-to-remain-the-largest-group-of-uninsured-in-the-state-in-2022/\">report\u003c/a> by the UC Berkeley Labor Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Estimates vary, but depending on the final age cutoff that Newsom and legislative leaders decide for this year’s budget, roughly 80,000 to more than 200,000 undocumented Californians could gain access to Medi-Cal, including many who have worked essential jobs that are key to the state’s economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immigrant and health advocates who have pushed California for years to extend health coverage to undocumented immigrants savored the realization that finally, older adults will most likely be eligible for coverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At last, justice does prevail. We are in a historic moment as Californians,” said Luz Gallegos, the executive director of TODEC, a legal center and immigrant justice organization in the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California continues to step up and defend all Californians, especially those who are most vulnerable, who don’t have any access to safety nets, but who contribute to our state economy, have been paying taxes … and have seen nothing in return,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11879325\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1242px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11879325\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Gallegos.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1242\" height=\"806\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Gallegos.jpg 1242w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Gallegos-800x519.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Gallegos-1020x662.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Gallegos-160x104.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1242px) 100vw, 1242px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luz Gallegos works on COVID-19 vaccine outreach for farmworkers in Thermal, Calif. this spring. \u003ccite>(Courtesy TODEC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The governor’s budget \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/2021-22/pdf/Revised/BudgetSummary/HealthandHumanServices.pdf\">revision\u003c/a> from May includes nearly $860 million in annual state funds to expand Medi-Cal to low-income undocumented adults age 60 and older, with some of that funding available next year. The Legislature’s \u003ca href=\"https://abgt.assembly.ca.gov/sites/abgt.assembly.ca.gov/files/Floor%20Report%20of%20the%202021-22%20Budget%20-%20%28June%2011%2C%202021%20Version%29.pdf\">proposal\u003c/a> dedicates $1.3 billion in annual funds to cover undocumented adults age 50 and older once the program is fully established.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='undocumented-immigrants']Gallegos, who was born in the U.S. to farmworker immigrant parents, said this likely win is personal for her. In recent years, her undocumented uncle died from cancer, she said, after he delayed seeking medical care because he was uninsured. During the pandemic, farmworkers she knows died from COVID-19 while several others became ill with the virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We honor their lives by continuing the struggle so we don’t see no more lives taken away from our communities,” said Gallegos, her voice breaking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, low-income undocumented immigrants who are 26 and older are eligible for limited Medi-Cal, which only covers health care emergencies or prenatal care if they are pregnant. Undocumented immigrants are excluded from the Affordable Care Act, and cannot purchase coverage through Covered California, the state’s ACA health exchange.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they are not insured by an employer or able to purchase a private plan, they must generally rely on county health programs, which vary greatly throughout the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Gov. Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11814885/as-pandemic-batters-californias-economy-plan-to-insure-undocumented-seniors-in-doubt\">proposed\u003c/a> offering full-scope Medi-Cal to undocumented seniors age 65 and older. But the plan didn’t go through, as the state projected a severe economic downturn and tax losses in the billions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the financial picture for California is starkly different this year, with the state logging an eye-popping budget surplus of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11874125/californias-historic-budget-surplus-is-it-76-billion-or-38-billion\">$76 billion\u003c/a>. In addition, the pandemic highlighted how “interconnected” public health really is, with all of us having to think about whether people around us wore masks, stood far enough apart, or were vaccinated, said Dar, with the California Immigrant Policy Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And so to give health care access to this community would mean a healthier and stronger state for all Californians,” said Dar. “Increased productivity, better health outcomes, better public health.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some opponents have argued that funds to provide health coverage to undocumented people would be better spent on other needs, such as helping struggling U.S. citizens afford their own health insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About two in three Californians support the idea of providing health coverage to undocumented immigrants, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/wp-content/uploads/ppic-statewide-survey-californians-and-their-government-march-2021.pdf\">recent survey\u003c/a> by the Public Policy Institute of California. But many Republicans oppose it, with nearly eight in 10 saying that they are not in favor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, Illinois became the \u003ca href=\"https://www.povertylaw.org/article/health-coverage-available-to-undocumented-seniors-in-illinois/#:~:text=Fortunately%2C%20Illinois%20has%20become%20the,citizens%20age%2065%20or%20older.\">first state\u003c/a> to extend health insurance to undocumented seniors age 65 and older.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former farmworker Laura hopes she will gain access to health coverage — and low-cost medical care — in California, where she has lived since the late 1980s, most recently in Riverside county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would help me a lot to go to the doctor and get my eyes checked out,” Laura said. “It would be the best.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Laura, 76, has not seen a doctor for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The former farmworker, who did not want her last name used because of her immigration status, said she is losing her eyesight and her feet are often swollen and in pain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A grandmother, Laura also suffers from headaches and shortness of breath, months after she became seriously ill with COVID-19 during the winter surge. Through it all, she has relied on home remedies and not sought medical care because she lacks health insurance, she said, in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t have any money. And at my age, there’s no work,” said Laura, who picked watermelon, zucchini, pumpkin and other crops for more than 20 years in fields in Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Laura may soon get access to the medical services she desperately needs, at little or no cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is on the verge of a historic step to offer public health insurance to low-income undocumented older adults — a population that has been particularly vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic but left out of federal assistance programs and other safety nets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders are expected to announce an expansion to the Medi-Cal program in the coming days as part of a final deal on the state budget, according to advocates and legislative aides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most recent negotiations in Sacramento have centered on the lower age limit for those who will be newly eligible: 50 and older, as lawmakers have previously proposed; 60 and older, as Newsom offered; or somewhere in between.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are as certain as we can be that there will be something that comes into the final budget,” said Sarah Dar, who directs health and public benefits policy at the California Immigrant Policy Center. “And it’s really just a matter of ‘What’s the age they land on?‘”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘California continues to step up and defend all Californians, especially those who are most vulnerable, who don’t have any access to safety nets, but who contribute to our state economy, have been paying taxes… and have seen nothing in return.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014, then-state Sen. Ricardo Lara introduced the first (unsuccessful) \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1005\">bill\u003c/a> to make undocumented immigrants eligible for public health coverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, California has enrolled undocumented children in full-scope Medi-Cal, offering free or low-cost preventative care, doctor visits, prescriptions, dental care, vision care and other services. Last year, the state became the first in the nation to offer health coverage to undocumented young adults through age 25.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But more than 1.3 million undocumented Californians are projected to lack health insurance next year, remaining the largest uninsured group in the state, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/undocumented-californians-projected-to-remain-the-largest-group-of-uninsured-in-the-state-in-2022/\">report\u003c/a> by the UC Berkeley Labor Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Estimates vary, but depending on the final age cutoff that Newsom and legislative leaders decide for this year’s budget, roughly 80,000 to more than 200,000 undocumented Californians could gain access to Medi-Cal, including many who have worked essential jobs that are key to the state’s economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immigrant and health advocates who have pushed California for years to extend health coverage to undocumented immigrants savored the realization that finally, older adults will most likely be eligible for coverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At last, justice does prevail. We are in a historic moment as Californians,” said Luz Gallegos, the executive director of TODEC, a legal center and immigrant justice organization in the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California continues to step up and defend all Californians, especially those who are most vulnerable, who don’t have any access to safety nets, but who contribute to our state economy, have been paying taxes … and have seen nothing in return,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11879325\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1242px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11879325\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Gallegos.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1242\" height=\"806\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Gallegos.jpg 1242w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Gallegos-800x519.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Gallegos-1020x662.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Gallegos-160x104.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1242px) 100vw, 1242px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luz Gallegos works on COVID-19 vaccine outreach for farmworkers in Thermal, Calif. this spring. \u003ccite>(Courtesy TODEC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The governor’s budget \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/2021-22/pdf/Revised/BudgetSummary/HealthandHumanServices.pdf\">revision\u003c/a> from May includes nearly $860 million in annual state funds to expand Medi-Cal to low-income undocumented adults age 60 and older, with some of that funding available next year. The Legislature’s \u003ca href=\"https://abgt.assembly.ca.gov/sites/abgt.assembly.ca.gov/files/Floor%20Report%20of%20the%202021-22%20Budget%20-%20%28June%2011%2C%202021%20Version%29.pdf\">proposal\u003c/a> dedicates $1.3 billion in annual funds to cover undocumented adults age 50 and older once the program is fully established.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Gallegos, who was born in the U.S. to farmworker immigrant parents, said this likely win is personal for her. In recent years, her undocumented uncle died from cancer, she said, after he delayed seeking medical care because he was uninsured. During the pandemic, farmworkers she knows died from COVID-19 while several others became ill with the virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We honor their lives by continuing the struggle so we don’t see no more lives taken away from our communities,” said Gallegos, her voice breaking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, low-income undocumented immigrants who are 26 and older are eligible for limited Medi-Cal, which only covers health care emergencies or prenatal care if they are pregnant. Undocumented immigrants are excluded from the Affordable Care Act, and cannot purchase coverage through Covered California, the state’s ACA health exchange.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they are not insured by an employer or able to purchase a private plan, they must generally rely on county health programs, which vary greatly throughout the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Gov. Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11814885/as-pandemic-batters-californias-economy-plan-to-insure-undocumented-seniors-in-doubt\">proposed\u003c/a> offering full-scope Medi-Cal to undocumented seniors age 65 and older. But the plan didn’t go through, as the state projected a severe economic downturn and tax losses in the billions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the financial picture for California is starkly different this year, with the state logging an eye-popping budget surplus of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11874125/californias-historic-budget-surplus-is-it-76-billion-or-38-billion\">$76 billion\u003c/a>. In addition, the pandemic highlighted how “interconnected” public health really is, with all of us having to think about whether people around us wore masks, stood far enough apart, or were vaccinated, said Dar, with the California Immigrant Policy Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And so to give health care access to this community would mean a healthier and stronger state for all Californians,” said Dar. “Increased productivity, better health outcomes, better public health.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some opponents have argued that funds to provide health coverage to undocumented people would be better spent on other needs, such as helping struggling U.S. citizens afford their own health insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About two in three Californians support the idea of providing health coverage to undocumented immigrants, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/wp-content/uploads/ppic-statewide-survey-californians-and-their-government-march-2021.pdf\">recent survey\u003c/a> by the Public Policy Institute of California. But many Republicans oppose it, with nearly eight in 10 saying that they are not in favor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, Illinois became the \u003ca href=\"https://www.povertylaw.org/article/health-coverage-available-to-undocumented-seniors-in-illinois/#:~:text=Fortunately%2C%20Illinois%20has%20become%20the,citizens%20age%2065%20or%20older.\">first state\u003c/a> to extend health insurance to undocumented seniors age 65 and older.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former farmworker Laura hopes she will gain access to health coverage — and low-cost medical care — in California, where she has lived since the late 1980s, most recently in Riverside county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would help me a lot to go to the doctor and get my eyes checked out,” Laura said. “It would be the best.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "the-work-that-makes-all-other-work-possible-ai-jen-poo-on-why-home-care-workers-are-infrastructure-workers",
"title": "'The Work That Makes All Other Work Possible': Ai-jen Poo on Why Home Care Workers Are Infrastructure Workers",
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"headTitle": "‘The Work That Makes All Other Work Possible’: Ai-jen Poo on Why Home Care Workers Are Infrastructure Workers | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on the importance of child care, in-home care and support for the elderly as well as for members of the disability community across the nation. Now, one of the most contentious parts of negotiations with Republicans over President Biden’s infrastructure plan has to do with the administration’s inclusion of \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/why-care-work-infrastructure/618588/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$400 billion in spending for at-home care for the elderly and people with disabilities\u003c/a>, with the administration arguing that such domestic work is as essential to a functioning economy as roads and bridges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s Mina Kim spoke with \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/brief/375509/ai-jen-poo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ai-jen Poo\u003c/a>, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.domesticworkers.org/press/spokespersons/ai-jen-poo/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Domestic Workers Alliance\u003c/a>, about domestic workers and what it means to include this work in the infrastructure plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Why Care Work Is Best Described as Infrastructure\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ai-jen Poo:\u003c/strong> We’ve always talked about how domestic work, the work that happens inside of our homes to take care of our family members, our children, our loved ones with disabilities, our aging loved ones, really is the work that makes all other work possible. Having access to care makes it possible for all of us to go out into the world and do what we do every single day.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance\"]‘If you think about the definition of infrastructure, it’s really that which enables society and the economy to function. And what could be more fundamental than having the ability to take care of your loved ones as you prepare to work and participate in our workforce and economy?’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you think about the definition of infrastructure, it’s really that which enables society and the economy to function. And what could be more fundamental than having the ability to take care of your loved ones as you prepare to work and participate in our workforce and economy?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if you think about the traditional definition of infrastructure, roads, bridges, tunnels, all of the people who are rebuilding our bridges and fixing our tunnels, they need care, too. So maybe it’s the first form of infrastructure before anything else.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Single Greatest Opportunity in Generations’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>What do you think about the fact that care work is now in a presidential infrastructure bill?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ai-jen Poo:\u003c/strong> I think it’s the single greatest opportunity we’ve had in generations to establish the kind of policies and programs we need to support our ability to care for our families as we work. It’s necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even before the pandemic, many of us were simmering in a care crisis. We have a situation where the baby boom generation is aging into retirement at a rate of 10,000 people per day, turning 65 every 8 seconds. We’ve basically added an entire generation onto our lifespan and we haven’t adopted any of our systems or policy to support a quality of life and the care we need as we live longer. On both ends of the generational spectrum, we need more care than ever before at a time when we have less of it. Our default care infrastructure in previous generations was just expecting that women will stay home and be full-time family caregivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance\"]‘The fact that the work as a profession has always been associated with women of color has profoundly shaped the way that we’ve treated this work in law, policy and in culture.’[/pullquote]We need programs, policies, systems and a strong care workforce to support us. There are over 2.5 million [care workers], and they’re overwhelmingly women — 92% women and majority women of color, including many immigrant women. This is actually the part of the economy with the highest concentration of undocumented immigrants of any workforce. They are also majority primary income earners for their families and majority mothers of small children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have a workforce who is essential not only to the families they support, but their own families and communities. And it’s also a workforce that has always been majority women of color. Some of the first domestic workers in the U.S. were enslaved Black women. And the fact that the work as a profession has always been associated with women of color has profoundly shaped the way that we’ve treated this work in law, policy and in culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting in the 1930s, when we were putting our foundational labor laws into place, this workforce was excluded intentionally as a result of racism and the legacy of slavery in our country. And it created a situation of extreme insecurity when domestic workers entered a crisis like a pandemic — it just became incredibly exacerbated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11877959\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1355px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49609_015_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1355\" height=\"1003\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11877959\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49609_015_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021-qut.jpg 1355w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49609_015_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021-qut-800x592.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49609_015_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021-qut-1020x755.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49609_015_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021-qut-160x118.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1355px) 100vw, 1355px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Alex Padilla speaks with children during a visit to Mission Kids Preschool in San Francisco on June 1, 2021. The visit was part of Padilla’s ‘Infrastructure Listening Tour.’ \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Structural Problems in Pay and Working Conditions\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Could you talk a little bit more about some of the more common structural problems that you see regarding pay and working conditions?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ai-jen Poo:\u003c/strong> Eighty-two percent of domestic workers didn’t have a single paid sick day. When the second stay-at-home orders came down, you saw dramatic losses in jobs and income because there’s no job security, there’s no contract or work agreement. The wages are essentially poverty wages. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So most domestic workers didn’t have the savings to be able to fall back on. I remember in March of 2020, in the first weeks of the pandemic, we held a meeting on Zoom with some of our members and one of them held her phone up to the Zoom screen to show us that she literally had 1 cent left in her bank account.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What Investing in the Care Economy Looks Like\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>When you say investment in care workers and the care economy, what does it look like?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ai-jen Poo:\u003c/strong> The Biden \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">American Jobs Plan\u003c/a> proposed a $400 billion investment in Medicaid, home and community-based care. What that money would do is expand access to home and community-based services and care for the elderly, and people with disabilities. And it would support raising wages and access to benefits for the workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, the average annual income of a home care worker is $17,000 per year. I don’t know a single community where that is sustainable, let alone enough to raise a family on. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance\"]‘If you’re a parent or you’re a primary caregiver for a family member who needs assistance with activities of daily life, you know that it’s an impossible choice between work and family members who need you for their basic human needs.’[/pullquote]What we end up seeing is high rates of turnover because people simply cannot survive and sustain themselves doing this work … because the wages are so poor and the conditions are so tough, we have huge parts of this country that we call home care deserts or direct care deserts because people can’t get the support that they need in order to live in their communities. They end up either having to go into a nursing home or having to rely on overstretched family caregivers who have to make impossible choices about whether or not they can work. The money to Medicaid would specifically raise wages for the home care workforce and strengthen that workforce so that they can stay and sustain themselves doing this work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would expand access to the services for over 800,000 people who are on waiting lists and the millions more who don’t even know there’s a waiting list to wait on.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A Cultural Shift\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>What evidence do you have that there is a tangible cultural shift happening here?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ai-jen Poo:\u003c/strong> I do feel this incredible rage, we call it the “mom’s rage,” that incredible frustration that moms are feeling and have felt throughout the pandemic. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re a parent or you’re a primary caregiver for a family member who needs assistance with activities of daily life, you know that it’s an impossible choice between work and family members who need you for their basic human needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The kind of rage that I’m feeling, especially from women who disproportionately bear the brunt of caregiving responsibilities in our country, and especially women of color who’ve been pushed out of the workforce by the millions, almost 5 million women pushed out of the workforce in the pandemic because of caregiving challenges. That is an indicator that something is very broken.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we are to pull ourselves back from the regression to 1988 women’s workforce participation levels, we’re going to have to rebuild and build something really different. I think people know that in their guts. This cultural norm that we have around care being an individual responsibility and a responsibility of individual families is one that is very deep. It’s not like we’re going to move past it overnight. And it’s not that it isn’t the responsibility of women and families and individuals, but it is about what is our responsibility collectively to each other as a society to ensure that we have real choices and real agency when it comes to the people we love.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Protections for Undocumented Domestic Workers\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Can you comment on protections for undocumented domestic workers?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ai-jen Poo:\u003c/strong> There are a tremendous number of undocumented workers — essential workers in this industry. [aside tag=\"undocumented\" label=\"Related Stories\"] We’ve been working really hard to make sure that we seize upon this moment as we’re imagining an economic recovery that is inclusive and supportive of essential workers and includes undocumented domestic workers and care workers that have kept us safe through the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Alex Padilla from California has introduced legislation to create a path to citizenship for the 5 million essential workers across industries through this time of crisis, and so we are very busy trying to get support for that legislation. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It could be really transformative and it would be inclusive of domestic workers, so let the senator know that you really support his efforts and help us get people signed on to that bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "'The Work That Makes All Other Work Possible': Ai-jen Poo on Why Home Care Workers Are Infrastructure Workers | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on the importance of child care, in-home care and support for the elderly as well as for members of the disability community across the nation. Now, one of the most contentious parts of negotiations with Republicans over President Biden’s infrastructure plan has to do with the administration’s inclusion of \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/why-care-work-infrastructure/618588/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$400 billion in spending for at-home care for the elderly and people with disabilities\u003c/a>, with the administration arguing that such domestic work is as essential to a functioning economy as roads and bridges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s Mina Kim spoke with \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/brief/375509/ai-jen-poo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ai-jen Poo\u003c/a>, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.domesticworkers.org/press/spokespersons/ai-jen-poo/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Domestic Workers Alliance\u003c/a>, about domestic workers and what it means to include this work in the infrastructure plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Why Care Work Is Best Described as Infrastructure\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ai-jen Poo:\u003c/strong> We’ve always talked about how domestic work, the work that happens inside of our homes to take care of our family members, our children, our loved ones with disabilities, our aging loved ones, really is the work that makes all other work possible. Having access to care makes it possible for all of us to go out into the world and do what we do every single day.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘If you think about the definition of infrastructure, it’s really that which enables society and the economy to function. And what could be more fundamental than having the ability to take care of your loved ones as you prepare to work and participate in our workforce and economy?’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you think about the definition of infrastructure, it’s really that which enables society and the economy to function. And what could be more fundamental than having the ability to take care of your loved ones as you prepare to work and participate in our workforce and economy?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if you think about the traditional definition of infrastructure, roads, bridges, tunnels, all of the people who are rebuilding our bridges and fixing our tunnels, they need care, too. So maybe it’s the first form of infrastructure before anything else.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Single Greatest Opportunity in Generations’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>What do you think about the fact that care work is now in a presidential infrastructure bill?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ai-jen Poo:\u003c/strong> I think it’s the single greatest opportunity we’ve had in generations to establish the kind of policies and programs we need to support our ability to care for our families as we work. It’s necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even before the pandemic, many of us were simmering in a care crisis. We have a situation where the baby boom generation is aging into retirement at a rate of 10,000 people per day, turning 65 every 8 seconds. We’ve basically added an entire generation onto our lifespan and we haven’t adopted any of our systems or policy to support a quality of life and the care we need as we live longer. On both ends of the generational spectrum, we need more care than ever before at a time when we have less of it. Our default care infrastructure in previous generations was just expecting that women will stay home and be full-time family caregivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>We need programs, policies, systems and a strong care workforce to support us. There are over 2.5 million [care workers], and they’re overwhelmingly women — 92% women and majority women of color, including many immigrant women. This is actually the part of the economy with the highest concentration of undocumented immigrants of any workforce. They are also majority primary income earners for their families and majority mothers of small children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have a workforce who is essential not only to the families they support, but their own families and communities. And it’s also a workforce that has always been majority women of color. Some of the first domestic workers in the U.S. were enslaved Black women. And the fact that the work as a profession has always been associated with women of color has profoundly shaped the way that we’ve treated this work in law, policy and in culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting in the 1930s, when we were putting our foundational labor laws into place, this workforce was excluded intentionally as a result of racism and the legacy of slavery in our country. And it created a situation of extreme insecurity when domestic workers entered a crisis like a pandemic — it just became incredibly exacerbated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11877959\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1355px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49609_015_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1355\" height=\"1003\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11877959\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49609_015_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021-qut.jpg 1355w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49609_015_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021-qut-800x592.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49609_015_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021-qut-1020x755.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/RS49609_015_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021-qut-160x118.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1355px) 100vw, 1355px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Alex Padilla speaks with children during a visit to Mission Kids Preschool in San Francisco on June 1, 2021. The visit was part of Padilla’s ‘Infrastructure Listening Tour.’ \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Structural Problems in Pay and Working Conditions\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Could you talk a little bit more about some of the more common structural problems that you see regarding pay and working conditions?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ai-jen Poo:\u003c/strong> Eighty-two percent of domestic workers didn’t have a single paid sick day. When the second stay-at-home orders came down, you saw dramatic losses in jobs and income because there’s no job security, there’s no contract or work agreement. The wages are essentially poverty wages. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So most domestic workers didn’t have the savings to be able to fall back on. I remember in March of 2020, in the first weeks of the pandemic, we held a meeting on Zoom with some of our members and one of them held her phone up to the Zoom screen to show us that she literally had 1 cent left in her bank account.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What Investing in the Care Economy Looks Like\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>When you say investment in care workers and the care economy, what does it look like?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ai-jen Poo:\u003c/strong> The Biden \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">American Jobs Plan\u003c/a> proposed a $400 billion investment in Medicaid, home and community-based care. What that money would do is expand access to home and community-based services and care for the elderly, and people with disabilities. And it would support raising wages and access to benefits for the workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, the average annual income of a home care worker is $17,000 per year. I don’t know a single community where that is sustainable, let alone enough to raise a family on. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>What we end up seeing is high rates of turnover because people simply cannot survive and sustain themselves doing this work … because the wages are so poor and the conditions are so tough, we have huge parts of this country that we call home care deserts or direct care deserts because people can’t get the support that they need in order to live in their communities. They end up either having to go into a nursing home or having to rely on overstretched family caregivers who have to make impossible choices about whether or not they can work. The money to Medicaid would specifically raise wages for the home care workforce and strengthen that workforce so that they can stay and sustain themselves doing this work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would expand access to the services for over 800,000 people who are on waiting lists and the millions more who don’t even know there’s a waiting list to wait on.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A Cultural Shift\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>What evidence do you have that there is a tangible cultural shift happening here?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ai-jen Poo:\u003c/strong> I do feel this incredible rage, we call it the “mom’s rage,” that incredible frustration that moms are feeling and have felt throughout the pandemic. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re a parent or you’re a primary caregiver for a family member who needs assistance with activities of daily life, you know that it’s an impossible choice between work and family members who need you for their basic human needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The kind of rage that I’m feeling, especially from women who disproportionately bear the brunt of caregiving responsibilities in our country, and especially women of color who’ve been pushed out of the workforce by the millions, almost 5 million women pushed out of the workforce in the pandemic because of caregiving challenges. That is an indicator that something is very broken.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we are to pull ourselves back from the regression to 1988 women’s workforce participation levels, we’re going to have to rebuild and build something really different. I think people know that in their guts. This cultural norm that we have around care being an individual responsibility and a responsibility of individual families is one that is very deep. It’s not like we’re going to move past it overnight. And it’s not that it isn’t the responsibility of women and families and individuals, but it is about what is our responsibility collectively to each other as a society to ensure that we have real choices and real agency when it comes to the people we love.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Protections for Undocumented Domestic Workers\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Can you comment on protections for undocumented domestic workers?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ai-jen Poo:\u003c/strong> There are a tremendous number of undocumented workers — essential workers in this industry. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> We’ve been working really hard to make sure that we seize upon this moment as we’re imagining an economic recovery that is inclusive and supportive of essential workers and includes undocumented domestic workers and care workers that have kept us safe through the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Alex Padilla from California has introduced legislation to create a path to citizenship for the 5 million essential workers across industries through this time of crisis, and so we are very busy trying to get support for that legislation. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It could be really transformative and it would be inclusive of domestic workers, so let the senator know that you really support his efforts and help us get people signed on to that bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Activists held a die-in on the street in front of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Sacramento home early Wednesday to demand COVID-19 relief for undocumented workers who they say are largely excluded from unemployment benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fifty-eight people, mostly immigrant workers and activists from across California, laid down in the street to bring attention to the disproportionate share of pandemic-related deaths borne by workers and their families in sectors the state identified as the most high-risk for COVID-19 spread, including agriculture, warehouses and restaurants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 10 industries in California, the first 10 months of the pandemic \u003ca href=\"https://clc.ucmerced.edu/sites/clc.ucmerced.edu/files/page/documents/fact_sheet_-_the_pandemics_toll_on_california_workers_in_high_risk_industries.pdf\">saw a 30% increase in deaths\u003c/a> of essential workers in those industries compared to the previous year, according to a study from the UC Merced Community and Labor Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Mirna Bueso, undocumented worker\"]‘We are not asking for charity, we are asking to get back what we have given to this state.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As an immigrant, I’ve seen how we’ve been excluded from all the benefits the government has provided to workers,” said Mirna Bueso, 45, who worked two part-time jobs, one at a warehouse and one at a restaurant before losing both jobs during the pandemic. Bueso, who lives in San Francisco, was unemployed for eight months but did not qualify for assistance because she is undocumented. Through an employment agency she was eventually able to find work a couple of days a week, but work is still unstable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bueso said she is not afraid of identifying herself as undocumented, because she contributes to the state and federal governments by paying her taxes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are also part of this state. We pay taxes. We pay them in each of our paychecks,” she said. “Even if they don’t let us qualify for certain benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every week, charges are taxed on our income for unemployment, disability benefits and social security … but we don’t get to see that. We are not asking for charity, we are asking to get back what we have given to this state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bueso has been volunteering at food banks as a way to feed her family. Last year, she received $1,000 from a nonprofit organization providing assistance to undocumented immigrant workers, but given the cost of living in San Francisco, the money hasn’t gone far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We [essential immigrant workers] should not be feeling so unprotected as we are now. We don’t have a guarantee … if we lose our employment, we are practically left with nothing, in the streets, because many of us have been evicted from the places we live because we owe more than eight months in rent,” Bueso said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Legislature is currently in the final stages of deciding how to spend a $75 billion budget surplus. Some believe the surplus should include more support for immigrant workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The issue of political will is always a question, but financially it’s viable,” said Lucas Zucker, policy and communications director for Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, which organized the protest. “The rich have gotten richer in this pandemic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11862122]Zucker said the state of New York has shown leadership on the issue with its establishment of an \u003ca href=\"https://access.nyc.gov/programs/excluded-workers-fund/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">excluded workers fund\u003c/a>, which is a direct payment for low-income workers who don’t qualify for other benefits. Zucker said he’d like to see that same kind of leadership in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In terms of the recovery, California’s recovery won’t be complete if families are still left behind,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bueso said that through today’s action, she would like to see the inclusion of immigrant workers in the state budget “because we are essential parts in the state’s economy.” The current plan doesn’t include workers like Bueso, she said, even though “we are a fundamental part of the state’s economy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, undocumented workers were for the first time eligible for the California Earned Income Tax Credit, a tax credit for Californians who earn up to $30,000 and which may provide as much as $3,027 depending on the number of dependents in a family. But since those benefits are dependent on an undocumented worker filing taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), and since getting one \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11874637/the-stimulus-gap-why-many-undocumented-immigrants-arent-getting-the-golden-state-stimulus-theyre-entitled-to\">can itself be an ordeal\u003c/a>, advocates say this means an unknown number of undocumented workers are still left out of California’s current stimulus plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Too many of our families lost our entire life savings, went thousands of dollars in debt, or risked our lives in deadly jobs to make ends meet, while the rich continued to get richer,” said Jennifer Alejo of Trabajadores Unidos Workers United, who helped lead the die-in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Activists held a die-in on the street in front of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Sacramento home early Wednesday to demand COVID-19 relief for undocumented workers who they say are largely excluded from unemployment benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fifty-eight people, mostly immigrant workers and activists from across California, laid down in the street to bring attention to the disproportionate share of pandemic-related deaths borne by workers and their families in sectors the state identified as the most high-risk for COVID-19 spread, including agriculture, warehouses and restaurants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 10 industries in California, the first 10 months of the pandemic \u003ca href=\"https://clc.ucmerced.edu/sites/clc.ucmerced.edu/files/page/documents/fact_sheet_-_the_pandemics_toll_on_california_workers_in_high_risk_industries.pdf\">saw a 30% increase in deaths\u003c/a> of essential workers in those industries compared to the previous year, according to a study from the UC Merced Community and Labor Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As an immigrant, I’ve seen how we’ve been excluded from all the benefits the government has provided to workers,” said Mirna Bueso, 45, who worked two part-time jobs, one at a warehouse and one at a restaurant before losing both jobs during the pandemic. Bueso, who lives in San Francisco, was unemployed for eight months but did not qualify for assistance because she is undocumented. Through an employment agency she was eventually able to find work a couple of days a week, but work is still unstable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bueso said she is not afraid of identifying herself as undocumented, because she contributes to the state and federal governments by paying her taxes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are also part of this state. We pay taxes. We pay them in each of our paychecks,” she said. “Even if they don’t let us qualify for certain benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every week, charges are taxed on our income for unemployment, disability benefits and social security … but we don’t get to see that. We are not asking for charity, we are asking to get back what we have given to this state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bueso has been volunteering at food banks as a way to feed her family. Last year, she received $1,000 from a nonprofit organization providing assistance to undocumented immigrant workers, but given the cost of living in San Francisco, the money hasn’t gone far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We [essential immigrant workers] should not be feeling so unprotected as we are now. We don’t have a guarantee … if we lose our employment, we are practically left with nothing, in the streets, because many of us have been evicted from the places we live because we owe more than eight months in rent,” Bueso said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Legislature is currently in the final stages of deciding how to spend a $75 billion budget surplus. Some believe the surplus should include more support for immigrant workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The issue of political will is always a question, but financially it’s viable,” said Lucas Zucker, policy and communications director for Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, which organized the protest. “The rich have gotten richer in this pandemic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Zucker said the state of New York has shown leadership on the issue with its establishment of an \u003ca href=\"https://access.nyc.gov/programs/excluded-workers-fund/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">excluded workers fund\u003c/a>, which is a direct payment for low-income workers who don’t qualify for other benefits. Zucker said he’d like to see that same kind of leadership in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In terms of the recovery, California’s recovery won’t be complete if families are still left behind,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bueso said that through today’s action, she would like to see the inclusion of immigrant workers in the state budget “because we are essential parts in the state’s economy.” The current plan doesn’t include workers like Bueso, she said, even though “we are a fundamental part of the state’s economy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, undocumented workers were for the first time eligible for the California Earned Income Tax Credit, a tax credit for Californians who earn up to $30,000 and which may provide as much as $3,027 depending on the number of dependents in a family. But since those benefits are dependent on an undocumented worker filing taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), and since getting one \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11874637/the-stimulus-gap-why-many-undocumented-immigrants-arent-getting-the-golden-state-stimulus-theyre-entitled-to\">can itself be an ordeal\u003c/a>, advocates say this means an unknown number of undocumented workers are still left out of California’s current stimulus plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Too many of our families lost our entire life savings, went thousands of dollars in debt, or risked our lives in deadly jobs to make ends meet, while the rich continued to get richer,” said Jennifer Alejo of Trabajadores Unidos Workers United, who helped lead the die-in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Some \u003ca href=\"https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2016/cb16-139.html\">5 million Americans today work in information technology, \u003c/a>based on the latest U.S. Census Bureau count.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That marks a growth of more than 35% over the last two decades, and doesn’t even factor in the many millions of workers in other industries whose jobs have become increasingly tech-focused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Marcus Courtney, former Microsoft contractor\"]‘Your actual personal experience as a tech worker is very different than the perception that’s been shaped in the popular culture and media.’[/pullquote]Despite the rapid growth of its workforce, the tech sector is still among the least unionized major industries in the country. But that’s not for lack of trying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20200318140849/https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1071&context=lrr\">For decades\u003c/a>, tech workers have faced consistent hurdles to organizing: lack of power on the job, workforces spread across the world, false narratives about working conditions, and staunch resistance from management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Noyce, co-founder of Intel, \u003ca href=\"https://books.google.com/books?id=GGQLLFDTudIC&pg=PA155&lpg=PA155&dq=remaining+non-union+is+an+essential+for+survival+for+most+of+our+companies.+If+we+had+the+work+rules+that+unionized+companies+have,+we%27d+all+go+out+of+business.+noyce&source=bl&ots=hCegxKzk0m&sig=efIv11ybFeTj6nqLgC3mlIeqgdA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiMntDJw-jSAhUG1mMKHZfgCysQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=remaining%20non-union%20is%20an%20essential%20for%20survival%20for%20most%20of%20our%20companies.%20If%20we%20had%20the%20work%20rules%20that%20unionized%20companies%20have%2C%20we'd%20all%20go%20out%20of%20business.%20noyce&f=false\">once reportedly argued\u003c/a> that “remaining non-union is essential for survival for most of our companies. If we had the work rules that unionized companies have, we’d all go out of business.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite staunch opposition, tech workers decades ago tried to build solidarity, first in high-tech manufacturing and then IT work.\u003ca href=\"https://truthout.org/articles/up-against-the-open-shop-the-hidden-story-of-silicon-valley-s-high-tech-workers-2/\"> In the 1970s\u003c/a>, organizing in Silicon Valley was led by largely underpaid women and people of color at semiconductor plants in Silicon Valley, like Fairchild Semiconductor and National Semiconductor. \u003ca href=\"https://www.fastcompany.com/40787/permatemps-contretemps\">In the 1990s,\u003c/a> there was another surge of organizing among IT workers at software companies like Microsoft and then-nascent online retailers like Amazon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"tech-industry\"]More recently, labor organizers have succeeded at unionizing tech workers at a handful of companies, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11839817/how-a-scrappy-group-of-tech-workers-formed-one-of-the-only-unions-in-the-industry\">Kickstarter \u003c/a>and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873927/they-work-for-an-app-they-deliver-groceries-and-now-they-have-a-union\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Imperfect Foods\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But organizing efforts are also running into many of the same historical roadblocks — along with some new ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Organizing in the CD-ROM Era\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Marcus Courtney got an intimate look at the wave of tech worker organizing efforts in the 1990s. At the time, he was a test engineer at Microsoft, working on “mail products,” and a bunch of applications that now sound ancient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Courtney said that, like today, many people then thought they’d be set for life if they got a job working on cutting edge technology at a place like Microsoft. But similar to many modern tech workers, Courtney was a Microsoft contractor, not an employee, so he didn’t enjoy the benefits, relatively high salaries or stock options of some of the people he worked alongside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Your actual personal experience as a tech worker is very different than the perception that’s been shaped in the popular culture and media,” Courtney said. “And I think that’s why we decided it was time to take action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Courtney and other contractors formed a group called Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, or\u003ca href=\"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227538285_Collective_Representation_Among_High-Tech_Workers_at_Microsoft_and_Beyond_Lessons_from_WashTechCWA\"> WashTech\u003c/a>, with help from the Communications Workers of America union. Around the same time, several hundred IBM workers created a group called \u003ca href=\"https://www.postbulletin.com/news/business/alliance-ibm-dissolves-after-years/article_a1724fe8-a672-5442-986a-77a3259fd951.html\">Alliance@IBM\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these union organizing efforts fell far short of recruiting the large percentage of workers required for recognition by the National Labor Relations Board. And most of these group are now long since defunct.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Myth of the Pampered Tech Worker\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Following the dot-com bust in 2000, a wave of new tech companies promised more power and autonomy for their workers. The general pitch: These startups wouldn’t have standard top-down corporate hierarchies. Instead they would be “flat organizations,” where anyone with a good idea could be heard and rewarded with perks and pay. Meritocracy would rule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Media outlets ate up and amplified this narrative for years, running stories that marveled at the gilded conditions of a relatively small group of elite workers at Silicon Valley companies like Google and Facebook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/_QqT38QRA84\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The media portrays tech workers as being in a position of power and control — the world is their oyster. They can switch jobs if they want and they have huge bargaining power,” said Ronil Hira, a political science professor at Howard University who has followed the tech labor market for two decades. “In reality, most tech workers are on the receiving end. They don’t have much control over their employment situation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This stereotype of privilege and power has long obscured the realities of the tech workforce, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hira notes that a majority of tech workers are not even located in Silicon Valley; they can more often be found in the back offices of insurance agencies, banks, and media organizations around the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And unlike the common depiction of pampered engineers in Silicon Valley, he adds, many tech workers face the same labor issues as those in other industries: stagnant pay, temporary contracts, the threat of outsourcing, and little say over working conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Changing Attitudes on Unions\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>After some initial scrutiny in the 1990s, federal labor regulators largely let up on the tech industry after the dot-com bust, taking a generally light-handed approach to ongoing concerns like its heavy reliance on long-term temporary workers and outsourcing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even as labor issues persisted, there still wasn’t much appetite among workers to unionize. While tech workers in the U.S. shied away from unions, those in other countries more commonly adopted them, a contrast that \u003ca href=\"https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1043&context=clsoc_crim_facpub\">prompted a string of studies\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1043&context=clsoc_crim_facpub\"> \u003c/a>detailing various tech worker organizing efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Jennifer Dorning, Department for Professional Employees\"]There was a general belief in the early 2000s that folks felt they could do better on their own and that they didn’t need a union.’[/pullquote]“There was a general belief in the early 2000s that folks felt they could do better on their own and that they didn’t need a union,” said Jennifer Dorning, president of the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the late 2000s and early 2010s, as a new class of tech startups took off, Dorning said attitudes among rank-and-file workers began shifting. In the early 2000s the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees started conducting survey of tech workers across the country found. In 2004, the survey showed that just 33% supported unionizing their workplace. By 2016, that had grown to 59%.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Top-Down Organizing\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Tech workers at places \u003ca href=\"https://current.org/2021/04/npr-plans-to-recognize-digital-staffers-union/\">like NPR\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/02/following-unionization-glitch-signs-collective-bargaining-agreement/\">software collaboration company Glitch\u003c/a> have since unionized. And at The New York Times, a group of over 650 IT workers are currently \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11869185/the-biggest-tech-unionization-effort-is-happening-at-the-new-york-times\">trying to join the union\u003c/a> that represents their journalist peers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alexander Peterson is a software engineer trying to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11854528/new-google-union-triples-in-size-in-first-week-but-faces-formidable-challenges\">organize his co-workers at Alphabet-owned Google\u003c/a>. “We really want to save Alphabet from itself,” he said, to “stop it from becoming just another one of these huge, inhuman, faceless entities that just bulldozes humanity for the sake of profit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]That’s language former Microsoft contractor Marcus Courtney said he can’t imagine programmers using back when he was on the frontlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now, you have programmers and these coders that are at the top of the pyramid — they are actually leading the organizing,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons why it’s been more successful. They are empowering workers who don’t feel they have as much leverage to step up and join them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite this shift, tech workers still face enormous organizing challenges, often having to face off against some of the largest, most powerful companies in the country. All of which suggests that further unionizing the industry will remain an uphill battle for the foreseeable future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Some \u003ca href=\"https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2016/cb16-139.html\">5 million Americans today work in information technology, \u003c/a>based on the latest U.S. Census Bureau count.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That marks a growth of more than 35% over the last two decades, and doesn’t even factor in the many millions of workers in other industries whose jobs have become increasingly tech-focused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Despite the rapid growth of its workforce, the tech sector is still among the least unionized major industries in the country. But that’s not for lack of trying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20200318140849/https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1071&context=lrr\">For decades\u003c/a>, tech workers have faced consistent hurdles to organizing: lack of power on the job, workforces spread across the world, false narratives about working conditions, and staunch resistance from management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Noyce, co-founder of Intel, \u003ca href=\"https://books.google.com/books?id=GGQLLFDTudIC&pg=PA155&lpg=PA155&dq=remaining+non-union+is+an+essential+for+survival+for+most+of+our+companies.+If+we+had+the+work+rules+that+unionized+companies+have,+we%27d+all+go+out+of+business.+noyce&source=bl&ots=hCegxKzk0m&sig=efIv11ybFeTj6nqLgC3mlIeqgdA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiMntDJw-jSAhUG1mMKHZfgCysQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=remaining%20non-union%20is%20an%20essential%20for%20survival%20for%20most%20of%20our%20companies.%20If%20we%20had%20the%20work%20rules%20that%20unionized%20companies%20have%2C%20we'd%20all%20go%20out%20of%20business.%20noyce&f=false\">once reportedly argued\u003c/a> that “remaining non-union is essential for survival for most of our companies. If we had the work rules that unionized companies have, we’d all go out of business.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite staunch opposition, tech workers decades ago tried to build solidarity, first in high-tech manufacturing and then IT work.\u003ca href=\"https://truthout.org/articles/up-against-the-open-shop-the-hidden-story-of-silicon-valley-s-high-tech-workers-2/\"> In the 1970s\u003c/a>, organizing in Silicon Valley was led by largely underpaid women and people of color at semiconductor plants in Silicon Valley, like Fairchild Semiconductor and National Semiconductor. \u003ca href=\"https://www.fastcompany.com/40787/permatemps-contretemps\">In the 1990s,\u003c/a> there was another surge of organizing among IT workers at software companies like Microsoft and then-nascent online retailers like Amazon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>More recently, labor organizers have succeeded at unionizing tech workers at a handful of companies, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11839817/how-a-scrappy-group-of-tech-workers-formed-one-of-the-only-unions-in-the-industry\">Kickstarter \u003c/a>and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873927/they-work-for-an-app-they-deliver-groceries-and-now-they-have-a-union\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Imperfect Foods\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But organizing efforts are also running into many of the same historical roadblocks — along with some new ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Organizing in the CD-ROM Era\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Marcus Courtney got an intimate look at the wave of tech worker organizing efforts in the 1990s. At the time, he was a test engineer at Microsoft, working on “mail products,” and a bunch of applications that now sound ancient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Courtney said that, like today, many people then thought they’d be set for life if they got a job working on cutting edge technology at a place like Microsoft. But similar to many modern tech workers, Courtney was a Microsoft contractor, not an employee, so he didn’t enjoy the benefits, relatively high salaries or stock options of some of the people he worked alongside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Your actual personal experience as a tech worker is very different than the perception that’s been shaped in the popular culture and media,” Courtney said. “And I think that’s why we decided it was time to take action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Courtney and other contractors formed a group called Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, or\u003ca href=\"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227538285_Collective_Representation_Among_High-Tech_Workers_at_Microsoft_and_Beyond_Lessons_from_WashTechCWA\"> WashTech\u003c/a>, with help from the Communications Workers of America union. Around the same time, several hundred IBM workers created a group called \u003ca href=\"https://www.postbulletin.com/news/business/alliance-ibm-dissolves-after-years/article_a1724fe8-a672-5442-986a-77a3259fd951.html\">Alliance@IBM\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these union organizing efforts fell far short of recruiting the large percentage of workers required for recognition by the National Labor Relations Board. And most of these group are now long since defunct.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Myth of the Pampered Tech Worker\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Following the dot-com bust in 2000, a wave of new tech companies promised more power and autonomy for their workers. The general pitch: These startups wouldn’t have standard top-down corporate hierarchies. Instead they would be “flat organizations,” where anyone with a good idea could be heard and rewarded with perks and pay. Meritocracy would rule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Media outlets ate up and amplified this narrative for years, running stories that marveled at the gilded conditions of a relatively small group of elite workers at Silicon Valley companies like Google and Facebook.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/_QqT38QRA84'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/_QqT38QRA84'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“The media portrays tech workers as being in a position of power and control — the world is their oyster. They can switch jobs if they want and they have huge bargaining power,” said Ronil Hira, a political science professor at Howard University who has followed the tech labor market for two decades. “In reality, most tech workers are on the receiving end. They don’t have much control over their employment situation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This stereotype of privilege and power has long obscured the realities of the tech workforce, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hira notes that a majority of tech workers are not even located in Silicon Valley; they can more often be found in the back offices of insurance agencies, banks, and media organizations around the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And unlike the common depiction of pampered engineers in Silicon Valley, he adds, many tech workers face the same labor issues as those in other industries: stagnant pay, temporary contracts, the threat of outsourcing, and little say over working conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Changing Attitudes on Unions\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>After some initial scrutiny in the 1990s, federal labor regulators largely let up on the tech industry after the dot-com bust, taking a generally light-handed approach to ongoing concerns like its heavy reliance on long-term temporary workers and outsourcing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even as labor issues persisted, there still wasn’t much appetite among workers to unionize. While tech workers in the U.S. shied away from unions, those in other countries more commonly adopted them, a contrast that \u003ca href=\"https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1043&context=clsoc_crim_facpub\">prompted a string of studies\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1043&context=clsoc_crim_facpub\"> \u003c/a>detailing various tech worker organizing efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "There was a general belief in the early 2000s that folks felt they could do better on their own and that they didn’t need a union.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“There was a general belief in the early 2000s that folks felt they could do better on their own and that they didn’t need a union,” said Jennifer Dorning, president of the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the late 2000s and early 2010s, as a new class of tech startups took off, Dorning said attitudes among rank-and-file workers began shifting. In the early 2000s the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees started conducting survey of tech workers across the country found. In 2004, the survey showed that just 33% supported unionizing their workplace. By 2016, that had grown to 59%.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Top-Down Organizing\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Tech workers at places \u003ca href=\"https://current.org/2021/04/npr-plans-to-recognize-digital-staffers-union/\">like NPR\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/02/following-unionization-glitch-signs-collective-bargaining-agreement/\">software collaboration company Glitch\u003c/a> have since unionized. And at The New York Times, a group of over 650 IT workers are currently \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11869185/the-biggest-tech-unionization-effort-is-happening-at-the-new-york-times\">trying to join the union\u003c/a> that represents their journalist peers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alexander Peterson is a software engineer trying to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11854528/new-google-union-triples-in-size-in-first-week-but-faces-formidable-challenges\">organize his co-workers at Alphabet-owned Google\u003c/a>. “We really want to save Alphabet from itself,” he said, to “stop it from becoming just another one of these huge, inhuman, faceless entities that just bulldozes humanity for the sake of profit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>That’s language former Microsoft contractor Marcus Courtney said he can’t imagine programmers using back when he was on the frontlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now, you have programmers and these coders that are at the top of the pyramid — they are actually leading the organizing,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons why it’s been more successful. They are empowering workers who don’t feel they have as much leverage to step up and join them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite this shift, tech workers still face enormous organizing challenges, often having to face off against some of the largest, most powerful companies in the country. All of which suggests that further unionizing the industry will remain an uphill battle for the foreseeable future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"masters-of-scale": {
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},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"morning-edition": {
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"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
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"onourwatch": {
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"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"order": 11
},
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"on-the-media": {
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"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
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},
"pbs-newshour": {
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
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"planet-money": {
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
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"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
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},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 5
},
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e0c2d153-ad36-4c8d-901d-f1da6a724824/political-breakdown",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
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